And a child shall lead them
by SplendentGoddess
Summary: While looking for jewel shards the inu-gang encounter a village of children, all of the adults having apparently been slain. What's worse, the children appear to be doing the bidding of a youkai that lives in the overgrown crops that surround the village. Rated for language.


Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.

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Greetings!

Well, it's that time of year again. I've been super busy lately but I'm _never_ too busy to bust out a new Halloween fic! I think I've probably exhausted just about every plausible scenario for actually incorporating the holiday itself into a canon setting, so in lieu of another Halloween-themed cheesy Inu/Kag romance I've decided to do what I did back when I wrote my interpretation of Tommyknockers.

If you couldn't tell from the title and summary, this one-shot was inspired by and is loosely based on Children of the Corn. I figured the underlying plot made for a story that would fit quite nicely in a canon setting. The 1980s movie version, not the original short story or the 2009 made-for-TV movie that much more closely resembles the short story. The would-be heroes die in that version. We can't have _that_ now can we?

On a side note, as you'll learn soon enough, I used hemp as the substitute for corn, but I want you to know that I chose this for historical and practical reasons only and am in _no way_ attempting to portray marijuana as evil or a demonic plant, LOL. After all, the demon in Children of the Corn is just using the corn field as a means to an end, and the story in no way implies that corn itself as a whole is an evil crop.

During Feudal Japan hemp was a regular crop that every village grew for the purposes of weaving cloth from its fibers, and as far as I could determine it was the _only_ crop of the time period that grows tall enough for my purposes. While they used sugar during this time it was imported from China; they didn't start growing their own sugarcane until the Edo period, nor did they grow sunflowers until the Edo period. Bamboo wasn't an option because it's too stiff and I needed something that could bend and move and attack people. Besides, as I brainstormed it dawned on me that hemp had another benefit for the purposes of my story which will be revealed soon enough.

As for when this story takes place, it doesn't take place anywhere specific but it's sometime early on while there are still jewel shards to be found.

Enjoy!

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And a child shall lead them…

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It was just another day, not unlike any other. The inu-tachi were heading down a lesser traveled road searching for rumors of jewel shards. It was a road Miroku had traveled once before a couple of years back and so he knew of the small farming village they should reach before too much longer. Sango had asked if they would have any _surprises_ in this small village, such as a young woman with a one-year-old child with indigo eyes, but laughing pleasantly the amorous monk had assured her that he'd made no such acquaintances on his previous visit. Which Inuyasha had translated to mean every woman he'd asked to bear his child had turned him down, just like they always did. The teasing was taken in stride, and they'd continued to make pleasant chitchat as they walked. It wasn't too hot, there were a few fluffy clouds in the sky, and Kagome didn't have any upcoming tests she was immediately fretting over. In other words, it was a good day, and everyone was in a good mood.

That mood changed gradually when, as they walked, large crops of hemp began replacing the forest trees along either side of the narrow road. Rows upon rows of the stuff, creating a replacement forest of sorts in what should have otherwise been open, wild field.

"That's odd," Miroku commented. "One would think we should be nearing a much larger town with this much agriculture, but when I passed this way two years ago it was a quaint farming village growing only enough hemp to serve the locals' needs. These fields were wild, not even used for growing wheat or vegetables."

"This much hemp could clothe an army," Sango commented.

Kagome nodded her agreement. The future-born miko knew her Feudal era companions wouldn't know anything about the western crop corn, but she'd seen pictures of American farms and corn fields, and that's kind of what this reminded her of in its vastness. It wasn't really that out of place in this century for something like hemp, which she knew the people of this time period grew for weaving cloth, but this quantity _was_ bordering on ridiculous.

A little bit of her 20st century mind couldn't help wondering what the modern day monetary value would be for this many plants, but smirking to herself she let the thought go.

"D'you suppose the local daimyo took over this region and is using it for that purpose?" Inuyasha asked of Sango's observation.

"Unlikely," Miroku stated, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as they continued onward.

Something felt...off. Almost like a demonic aura but very faint. Of course, it wasn't unusual for small, peaceful youkai to inhabit the wilds just outside of human settlements. If he stretched his senses he'd almost always pick up _something_. So long as they were peaceful youkai, then-

"It smells funny," Shippou complained, covering his nose as he walked.

Distracted by his amusement, Miroku smirked knowingly at Shippou's comment but didn't say anything.

"Feh, all sorts of human stuff smells funny," Inuyasha griped. "You ever smell fabric being dyed?" He crinkled his nose just thinking about it. "But with this much of the damn plant I can't smell anything else," he added then.

Uncrossing his arms, he gripped the hilt of Tetsusaiga, just in case. They were approaching a slight curve in the road and he _hated_ blind corners. He hated not being able to use his nose. Fortunately, there were no monsters waiting to get the drop on them, and they continued onward in peace.

About twenty minutes or so later, they came upon a man sitting along the side of the road, a small wooden cart used for displaying wares beside him although the cart was empty. A small shack of a house was nestled between the hemp crops behind him with a tiny vegetable garden off to one side and a small water well off to the other, indicating that he lived here. Miroku actually recognized the dwelling, having seen it on his previous trek up this road, when this had been open field, but the man had not been sitting outside at that time and so they'd never met. It appeared as if the hermit who lived just outside the village's border now tried to make a few coins off the occasional traveler, except of course he was out of wares. But perhaps that was what he was working on. Not looking up at their approach, the man had a small piece of wood in his hand that he was whittling.

"Good day, sir," Miroku began as they came up before him, about to ask the man if he had possibly heard any rumors about either a jewel shard or Naraku.

"I ain't got nothin' for sale," the man said before Miroku could voice his question.

"That's quite all right," the monk stated then. "We aren't actually in the market for-"

"I ain't buyin' nothing either," he interrupted, adding, "and there ain't nothin' up the road this way so yous best just turn around."

Inuyasha sighed nearly inaudibly, Kagome the only one of the humans to hear him because of her close proximity. She flashed him a sympathetic look but didn't say anything. The man had glanced up at everyone for a brief moment at Miroku's opening line but had then quickly gotten back to the piece of wood he was working on, appearing quite content to rudely ignore our group of travelers.

Seeing the frustrated expression of not only Inuyasha, but also the look she could read in Miroku's eyes, the monk hiding his aggravation with a false air of cheerfulness that stood out rather obviously to the slayer who had learned how to read his moods so well, Sango decided to try her hand at it in that moment.

"We seek shards of the Shikon no Tama," she stated quickly, her words concise and to the point.

That got his attention.

"Ha!" he bellowed. "Shards of the Shikon no Tama? You and everyone else. Good luck with that, deary."

Looking back up to meet Sango's eyes, his amusement dimmed a little as what the slayer would say was a brief flash of recognition passed over the man. Perhaps he'd realized who they were, since rumors of their group's quest had spread across the land almost as fast as rumors of the shards themselves. If this man did know who they were he didn't admit it, but he finally put down the piece of wood he'd been working with and gave our group of friends his undivided attention.

"Look, there ain't no jewel shards here, so like I said yous best just turn around and head back," he stated with an air of finality.

"We realize there are no jewel shards present in this particular village," Sango spoke back up then, gesturing with a wave of her hand to the village they knew resided just up the road, "but we thought that perhaps somebody might have heard rumors from other travelers of strange youkai activity somewhere that could possibly-"

"S-strange youkai activity?" the man interrupted again, she'd say with a nervous edge to his voice. "A-ain't none of that here. This village is just a quiet community. The locals are simple farmers, a very spiritual bunch that appreciate their privacy. They don't take too kindly to intruders, so you lot best head back the way you came. Go on now, go."

He actually waved his hands at them in a way that was like he was trying to shoo them away. Sango eyed him suspiciously, and Miroku took that opportunity to speak back up again.

"Well, actually, you see my good man, I passed this way a couple of years back, and while agreeably small, the community welcomed me with open arms. We appreciate your assurance that there is nothing amiss, and your caution that the locals prefer their privacy, however under the circumstances I believe we shall proceed into town all the same. At the very least, I'd like to say hello to the village headman. I'm quite sure he'll remember me."

"Yeah, I just bet he will," Shippou muttered under his breath, earning an amused snort from Inuyasha although nobody else heard him.

"I'm afraid there's been quite a few changes since the last time you were here, houshi," the would-be peddler stated then. "I can assure you the headman you knew is no longer in charge."

 _Interesting…_ the monk thought, although he kept his own growing suspicions to himself.

"Be that as it may, I still think I would like to see the village for myself." He hit his staff into the ground enough to make the rings jingle, emphasizing his point.

The man looked around nervously at Miroku's display, as if to make sure they were alone, which was foolish when they couldn't see through or over the thick, tall crops growing beside them on either side of the road. Who knew if they were alone or not?

"Look..." the man whispered then, Inuyasha's ears pivoting forward. "There _is_ trouble here, but I swear it don't got to do with the jewel, and my job is to keep people away. You lot, you've got a higher purpose. Don't risk your lives on us; we're a lost cause."

"No cause is lost while the people still live," Sango stated then.

"Most of them don't," the man revealed, still whispering.

A sudden shift in the wind that had the hemp crops dancing in the breeze caused the man's face to pale.

"Kami, I've said too much..."

"Then we shall take no more of your time," Miroku stated, eyeing the man warily as he went ahead and headed passed him, the rest of his companions right behind him as they headed farther up the road.

That there was clearly some kind of a threat in the area instantly put Inuyasha on high alert, and he mentally cursed his inability to smell anything thanks to all the gods damned hemp crops. He wondered if maybe whatever youkai was causing problems for this village had grown all the hemp on purpose to disguise its scent and maybe even the scent of blood. Indeed, with as badly as his nose was stinging, there could be a massacre taking place fifty feet away from him and he wouldn't know it.

Which was unfortunate for the hermit vendor, who continued to watch after the inu-tachi as they headed down the road, his eyes not leaving their forms until they disappeared from sight. He then sighed and got back to his wood working until a rustling in the plants behind him definitely not caused by the wind had him nervously glancing all around again.

"It's just the wind," he told himself in quiet denial after a moment, shaking his head. "Just the wind..." Even though he knew it wasn't.

Another rustling, this one louder than the first and in a different location, had him dropping his piece of wood and bolting to his feet.

"I-I tried to stop them, honest! You heard! I told them to turn around!"

His only answer was even more rustling, as if the hemp crops themselves were shaking at him in order to intimidate him with their collective sound. It was actually kind of working, not that he would give the evil force that resided here its satisfaction. Realizing he was probably dead either way, he suddenly decided to grow a pair and stand up to the youkai. Something he probably should have done months ago.

"You're right. I told them. And guess what? They're a group of youkai slayers. What're ya gonna do about it?"

Suddenly, the very tall hemp plants nearest him bent down and wrapped themselves around him, twisting and curling around his body, arms and legs. He tried to fight them off but for every one he managed to dislodge two more appeared in their place. He was fighting a losing battle and soon enough, the plants had him on his back and were dragging him into the crop field. He tried to scream for help but suddenly found himself gagged with a mouthful of plant. As he saw an eerie red mist or smoke begin rising up from the dirt all around him, rolling like a low fog to blanket his prone body, he found himself grateful that at least he knew the legendary shard hunters were on their way to the village. He had faith they would be victorious.

ooooooooo

Arriving in the farming village about twenty minutes later, or what was left of it, at least, our group of travelers looked around in surprised disbelief. They'd actually had to fight their way through several rows of crops in order to even enter the village, as the plants had gotten closer and closer together before ultimately closing off the road in its entirety. One might have even thought it was a bizarre dead end of sorts, a road to nowhere, but knowing for a fact the village existed they had pressed onward, literally, emerging on the other side to see what had become of the place that was seemingly cut off from the rest of the world.

Miroku, Kagome and even Sango had all felt an evil presence of some kind as they'd pushed their way through, but nothing came of it and everyone had emerged safely on the other side only to realize the out of control agriculture wasn't even just limited to walling in the village. Several tall hemp crops were growing seemingly wildly within the village proper, itself; in the streets, against nearly all of the buildings... A few small vegetable gardens planted on the various homes' properties did appear to still have some vegetables growing in them, but they were almost as wild and overgrown as the hemp crops, which also took up real estate within the various single family vegetable gardens they came across.

As they walked around checking everything out, there wasn't a single villager or animal in sight. It took a moment for them to realize it, but there wasn't even any birdsong.

"This is rather disquieting," Miroku commented as he looked around. Remembering the hermit's words, that most of the people were dead, he stretched his senses to see if he could feel any concentrations of jyaki or shouki that might indicate precisely where a youkai might be hiding.

"Do you sense something, bouzu?" Inuyasha asked, able to feel the monk's aura spiking as he scanned the place.

"Unfortunately, no," he answered. "I definitely felt something evil while we were passing through the hemp, but it had just been a vague, unfocused feeling."

"So did I," Kagome said, Sango nodding her agreement as well.

"It's probably some type of earth or plant based youkai that's using the hemp to wall the village in," Sango said. "It's power must run through all the plants, and they probably act like a cat's whiskers in a way," she said, petting Kirara whom she was still holding after having carried her through the crops. "They most likely function as some kind of feelers or extension of itself, letting the youkai know if anyone leaves, or enters. Whatever it is, it almost definitely knows we're here."

"Feh," Inuyasha grumbled, refusing to be intimidated. "Whatever this thing is, it's smart, using a crop that keeps me from smellin' the bastard." He rubbed his tortured nose. "I smell youkai more than I can feel 'em like you guys do," he said, pointing between the three humans, "and right now I can't smell nothin' but these stink weeds."

Rubbing his nose again, Inuyasha lamented the fact that everything associated with creating human clothing had to smell so bad. The plants used to weave the linen, the process used to dye it different colors...

"Just be glad the smell isn't amplified by a jewel shard," Kagome said, pulling Inuyasha from his thoughts as he remembered that painter with the cursed ink. He shuddered at the thought. "I don't sense any jewel shards," the miko continued then, "so that man had definitely been right about there not being any shards here."

"Even so, the locals clearly need our help and we should assist them," Sango said, earning a nod of agreement from Kagome and Miroku.

"What locals?" Shippou pointed out. "I don't see anybody around, do you? Everybody's dead."

"Not everybody," the hanyou explained to the kitsune. "Listen."

Listening carefully in what seemed like total quiet to the humans, Shippou realized that he could in fact hear a few scattered sets of footsteps here and there, but it seemed weird somehow, like a scurrying or shuffling sound.

"It's like...like they're hiding from us, running around in the shadows or something."

"Now _that's_ disquieting," Kagome commented. "Still, we should try to see if we can find the current headman, provided he's still alive."

"Yeah..." Inuyasha agreed.

Back in the beginning it was easier for him to not give a rat's ass about a place if their problems didn't have anything to do with a jewel shard, but nowadays he couldn't just abandon a village in need if the locals had youkai trouble, jewel or no jewel.

"Well, I guess the best place to look for the headman would be at his home," Sango chimed in then. "Do you remember where the headman's family compound is located, Houshi-sama?"

"I believe so," the monk stated honestly, only a hint of uncertainty in his voice. He was pretty sure he knew the way, but he was less certain about what they would find when they got there.

As they walked onward there still wasn't a soul in sight, nobody out to greet them _or_ chase them away, and Inuyasha's nose was still useless so that didn't do them any good. He could still hear the occasional scurrying, but from his recent experience of unofficially living in Kaede's village whenever they weren't out on the road, he'd say from what he could tell that he was just hearing children running around. No adults.

Wandering around a few minutes longer, they eventually came upon a particular set of buildings that Miroku said he recognized from his previous trip to this village two years prior. It wasn't the family compound of the headman, but rather, this property belonged to the local blacksmith, or at least it had back when he'd last visited this place. One of the buildings, which had once been the smith's youngest brother's home before the lad had moved away, had been turned into an unofficial public eatery and inn of sorts. They'd explained to him that while travelers passed through their humble village rather infrequently, and so they'd had no official inn or innkeeper, the occasional outsider did happen upon them from time to time, just as he himself had been visiting at that time during his solitary search for Naraku. They had told him that such a setup had been the smith's own idea, so that travelers could be more easily housed and fed if the need arose. His wife had been happy to accommodate, and Miroku remembered the woman's sweet dumplings well – no pun intended.

"Let's check it out," the monk said then. "I realize the blacksmith might be among the people no longer with us, but he had been in top physical condition the last time I was here and would probably have had better odds at surviving whatever might have affected these people."

"Good thinking," Inuyasha agreed. "How about you two check that one out." He pointed between Miroku and Sango while nodding his head towards the pseudo-inn. "Shippou," he added then, meeting the kitsune's eyes, "you go with them so they can use your hearing."

The fox child nodded his understanding and agreement.

"Kagome and I will check out this other house," Inuyasha said, pointing towards what had been the blacksmith's private home, his ears swiveling on his head a moment.

He was still hearing it, the occasional scurrying of running children, but still without seeing any. He also wasn't hearing anything one would normally hear accompanying the sound of running children, like laughter, which was really starting to give him the creeps.

Nodding his own understanding and agreement, Miroku moved to head inside the main room of the converted home, what had been set up as a casual dining hall of sorts the last time he'd been here, Sango hot on his heels with Kirara and Shippou both right behind her as well, the slayer having put the nekomata down. Entering the small building, it looked as if it was in fact still set up to serve as a functional dining room, but it also looked abandoned. The central low table actually still had a few dishes on it, which were covered in dust – among other things – as were the cushions sitting around the table. Kirara tried to sniff a cushion to see if she could find the lingering scent of a human and sneezed because of all the dust, which was understandably cute while in her kitten form and earned a passing half-grin from the taijiya although Sango was quick to get serious again. Especially when she and Miroku glanced each other's way and shared a knowing look. Something was very, very wrong.

Besides the place looking like life had just come to a sudden stop one day, there were also large pruned off sections of hemp crop sitting around inside the room, like somebody might have as an indoor potted plant except they weren't potted, or alive.

"What do you suppose is going on with all this dried hemp?" Sango asked, completely perplexed. It was ruined as a functional crop for weaving cloth from, and while she knew the dried flowers also held some medicinal qualities this quantity was just ridiculous.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Miroku said, before his and Sango's attention was diverted by Kirara hissing at something in the corner.

Meanwhile, in what had once been the blacksmith's home, Inuyasha and Kagome were encountering more of the same. There were filthy teacups left out on the low table, and even an unfinished spinning project still attached to the small wooden spinning wheel in the far corner of the main room. It was as if life had just stopped suddenly. Before, he might have used the expression it was as if _time_ had stopped, but nowadays, thanks to Kagome, Inuyasha had learned to respect the delicate fabric of time. Besides, if it had reallybeen as if time itself had stopped then nothing would've been filthy or rotted, like whatever the unidentifiable food items were that were on the counter in the kitchen area of the home. No, time itself had definitely been progressing in this place, and without humans to maintain it, it was showing its wear.

Quickly deciding that they'd seen all they needed to see, Inuyasha and Kagome headed out back and towards the smith's workshop. He seriously doubted they'd find any evidence of life there, either, but it was worth a look just in case.

As expected, the shop was cold, dusty, and clearly not in use, although he was surprised by the lack of extra tools hanging on the walls. The smith in Kaede's village always kept a supply of extra tools on hand in case one broke, so it could be immediately replaced while he then took the time to make himself a new spare. Not a pick, fork, ax, scythe or even a shovel was to be had in this place. This smith either hadn't been very sensible in life, or his entire supply had been wiped out, perhaps in an emergency.

Back inside the guest house, Kirara hissed again and ran into the far corner, behind a bundle of crops.

"What is it, Kirara?" Sango asked as she crouched a little and gripped the hilt of her sword, Miroku also gripping his staff tighter in preparation for something demonic although they both relaxed their postures when a normal, mortal rat ran out, a still-kitten Kirara giving chase.

"Sheesh, Kirara..." Sango chastised lightly, causing the nekomata to stop chasing the rat and look contrite for having worried her mistress.

Suddenly, though, Kirara's head popped back up, as did Shippou's that time, as the latter ran towards the door.

"Shippou, wait!" Sango called after him as she, Miroku and Kirara darted outside after the kit.

"Hey, you!" Shippou called in turn, shouting after the small group of boys who'd been creeping up on them before the kitsune had heard their approach.

Inuyasha ran outside as well at Shippou's shout, Kagome hot on his heels, and spotting the boys taking off down the road before ducking around behind a building he immediately gave chase.

"Did you see where they came from, Shippou-chan?" Kagome asked the fox child as she rejoined the others. "Did they come out of one of the nearby houses?"

"I didn't see," Shippou said, explaining how he'd only suddenly realized he'd heard faint footsteps getting closer and how he'd ran outside to see the boys approaching and that upon spotting him spotting them they'd immediately taking off running.

"I didn't mean to scare 'em off like that," the kitsune said apologetically.

Kagome's eyes softened at the boy's remorseful expression.

"It's not your fault, Shippou-chan," she reassured the kit. "Beside, I'm sure Inuyasha will have no trouble catching up to them."

"I lost them," Inuyasha said suddenly as he rounded the building.

"What?" Kagome asked, surprised both by his sudden appearance as well as his words.

"How is that possible?" Sango asked next, the taijiya genuinely surprised as well.

"Little brats ducked in somewhere as soon as they rounded the corner. Once I got there they were just gone, and I had to drop to the ground to track their scents in this mess. That's too slow and their scent led me to the edge of the field and the rows of hemp crops, where I couldn't even smell their scent on the ground anymore."

"I wonder why there only seems to be children in this village," Shippou commented then, earning a shrug from Inuyasha because he didn't know either.

"What do you mean, 'only' children?" Miroku asked.

"Those shuffling, scurrying sounds we've been hearing of people running around us in the shadows, it's only been kids we've been hearing so far, no adults," Inuyasha explained to his human companions, Shippou nodding and even Kirara mewing her agreement. "Ain't nobody said a damn word, and I haven't heard kids' laughter neither. Not like at Kaede's village where they're always runnin' and playin'. Something's weird here. They definitely ain'tplayin'."

"Then we're definitely getting to the bottom of whatever's happened here," Sango stated with conviction, earning nods of agreement from everyone else, including Inuyasha.

"I believe," Miroku spoke up then, "that since our young visitors gave us the slip, our best course of action at this point would be to continue onward to the headman's family compound."

"And hope there's actually somebody still living there," Shippou added.

"If not we'll figure it out from there, but I agree it's a good place to start," Kagome said.

The group headed onward, then, everyone on high alert for signs of any more rogue children. Everything was quieter than it had previously been, as if the kids themselves had overheard Inuyasha talking about how he'd been able to hear their movements before. They were creeping around, now, instead of scurrying, although the hanyou still occasionally heard one or two of them. Besides that, he also just generally speaking had that feeling of being watched, but so long as none of them actually came out and tried to cause any trouble he wouldn't try to go chasing any of them down again. Although Kagome hadn't said anything on the subject he knew her well enough to know what she was thinking. If something tragic had happened to all of the adults here then these kids were on their own, which meant they were pretty much screwed. But this wasn't _just_ a case of abandoned children who'd turned more wild in their solitude, because there was definitely an evil youkai involved somehow, and perhaps these children were even trapped here because of the village being walled in by the hemp crops. For all they knew, any kid who tried to leave became demon food.

Something was very, very wrong, and needed to be fixed.

Coming upon the house Miroku said he was certain had been the headman's main home, Inuyasha decided to stop worrying about whatever had happened here and instead worry about whether or not that something was a threat to his friends, and whether or not it was something he could deal with. Deciding this time that they should all go inside the main house together, rather than splitting up, they attempted knocking first just as a precaution but when nobody answered they went ahead and entered. Under the circumstances, everyone kept their shoes on.

The vacant, dusty house immediately reminded everybody of the previous homes they'd explored. Inuyasha instantly noticed the faint scent of a young girl, but with his nose still stinging from the abundance of hemp crops right outside and all the dust in the home not really giving him the breath of fresh air he'd have liked, he couldn't immediately tell if she was currently in the house or not. As they wandered around, checking the place out, there were sitting cushions around low tables in the main room that were all absolutely filthy, tea cups left out that were bone dry but stained, as if at one point they'd actually had tea left in them before it had evaporated, and there was even some black moldy stuff on a tray on the counter in the kitchen area that had undoubtedly been some sort of food at one point.

Once again, it was as if life had just suddenly stopped one day, but without any bodies or even lingering signs of a struggle.

Finding the main sleeping room, the chests and cabinets were still filled with the headman and his wife's possessions, but everything was opened, the clothing unfolded and disorganized, smaller items such as hair combs and facial makeup strewn about haphazardly. Several of the more delicate pieces were broken. The entire room looked completely ransacked, although if something was actually missing they wouldn't know it.

Finding the headman's records room next, multiple scrolls were lying opened all over the desk and floor, several of them ripped in multiple places. There were also several torn off, previously blank pieces of parchment that had been drawn on by a child with the headman's ink brush. Scattered all across the back corner of the room was illustration after illustration, each one more eerie than the one before it. Some depicted the hemp fields, a couple showed people tending to the crops, one showed what appeared to be a leader speaking with a group of followers listening as they looked up at him, but the really scary ones showed what had to be children attacking and even killing adults, the smaller stick figures holding raised scythe-like blades from what they could tell. Red lip paint had even been applied to the otherwise black ink paintings to illustrate blood. They were children's drawings of brutal murders; of children _committing_ brutal murders.

"This does not bode well," Miroku commented.

"You think?" Inuyasha asked sarcastically.

"Hey, look!" Shippou said, earning their attention as the young boy who was a bit of an artist himself had found himself drawn to the only _familiar_ looking paintings in the room.

"See something familiar?" he asked the others knowingly, pointing at specific paintings on the floor.

The drawings in question seemed to depict our group of travelers, one featuring the companions heading down the road towards the village, one of them speaking with the hermit vendor, and another of them making their way through the crops to emerge within the village.

"Now _that_ is disquieting," Sango chimed in.

Taking that moment to sniff the room, the smell of ink made Inuyasha crinkle his nose, although at least the house blessedly lacked the added decoration of dried hemp stalks. Even with the ink in this room Inuyasha's nose was still working well enough to pick up the scent of the children...or child, actually...who had painted all these images. The same little girl he'd scented in the main entryway. He also realized the scent was pretty fresh. Heading back out, he dropped to all fours and sniffed the floor, quickly confirming they were not alone in the house as the freshest scent trail headed not towards the front door, but rather, towards the back of the house.

"The kid's still here," he said to the others in a low whisper as he rose to his feet. "This way."

Everyone followed after Inuyasha down the hall towards the last room in the back. Entering the room without warning, everyone piled in and startled the little girl who was sitting on a cushion in the middle of the floor with a crudely made stick doll in her hands, the room having clearly been a storage room of some sort at one point although again all of the chests and cabinets had been opened, their contents spread out in disarray.

As the girl looked up in surprise at the inu-tachi's entrance, Kagome was the first to speak.

"Please don't be afraid, we didn't mean to scare you," the future-born miko began.

Approaching the child then, she got down onto her knees to be eye level with the girl.

"My name's Kagome. What's your name?"

"Junko..." the girl answered shyly.

 _Pure child…_ Kagome thought in wonder. _What an appropriate name_. She hadn't been able to sense it before because the girl was untrained, just as she herself was, but now that she was this close she had no doubt; this child possessed reiki.

"What a pretty name," she commented aloud then, before gesturing to the others. "These are my friends, Inuyasha, Sango-chan, Miroku-sama, Shippou-chan and Kirara."

Studying Junko for a moment longer, the girl's aura clearly bespoke of her purity and innocence. If the children of this village really had committed such brutal acts as depicted in her drawings, she herself had definitely taken no part in it. Kagome would bet her grades on it.

Miroku's thoughts were running along similar lines. Considering Junko had also drawn their arrival in the village, he would say she might not even have witnessed the murders. Such clairvoyance was not unheard of, but was certainly rare in a child so young.

"Are you here alone, Junko-chan?" Miroku asked the girl then.

Wordlessly, she shook her head no.

"Do you live here?" Kagome asked her then, receiving another negative shake of her head.

Seeing the stick doll still in her hands, and the other couple of toys on the floor beside her, not to mention all those paintings in the other room, Miroku spoke up again, asking, "Do you come here to play?"

This time, she nodded her head yes.

"Are your mother or father around?" Sango asked then, addressing the child for the first time.

Junko shook her head no again at that, but then elaborated with, "They're in the hemp field."

Knowing for a fact there were no workers currently in the field, because nose or no nose he'd have been able to hear the sounds of farm work, but at the same time also being able to scent that the girl was telling the truth, Inuyasha immediately became suspicious and asked the followup question, "What are they doing there?"

Instead of answering directly, Junko cryptically stated, "All the grownups are there."

Seeing his friend's suspicious expression, Miroku decided to chime back in and ask specifically, "Are they working the field?"

At the monk's question Junko shook her head again, and said, "No, Ichirou-sama put them there."

"Who's Ichirou-sama?" Miroku asked then.

Junko looked hesitant to say, and Kagome reached forward and gently brushed her hand down over the young girl's hair to smooth it as she encouraged, "Come on, Junko-chan, tell us who Ichirou-sama is."

Meeting the miko's eyes, Junko reluctantly confessed, "Our leader."

"Leader of what?" Shippou asked, speaking up for the first time since entering that room and earning the girl's attention.

Surprised to see the fox child standing there, Junko almost smiled at him before the look was lost, replaced with the same sorrowful expression she'd been sporting. "Of everybody," she answered him.

"You mean, he's your village headman?" Sango wished to clarify, but Junko shook her head no again.

"Hmmm..." Miroku murmured under his breath, contemplating.

"Could you take us to meet Ichirou-sama?" Kagome asked the girl then.

"Mm-Mm..." Junko hummed in the negative, her tone indicating that she did _not_ think that would be a good idea.

"Why not?" the miko asked.

"He's scary."

Sango came closer and knelt beside Kagome, meeting the child's eyes. "Listen, Junko-chan, it's very important that we speak with a grownup," the slayer said. "Do you think you could help us out with that?"

A sudden noise from outside that only the demonic members of the inu-tachi could hear immediately drew Inuyasha's attention, his ears swiveling. Miroku noticed, and asked the hanyou what was wrong, but instead of answering directly, he said, "You guys stay here with her, I'm going to go check something out."

"Do you think it's wise to separate?" Kagome asked from her place still kneeling in front of Junko.

"I can investigate better on my own. You guys will be safe so long as you all stick together." A quick look flashed in both Sango and Miroku's directions had the slayer and monk each nodding their understanding. It was their job to protect Kagome in his absence.

Worrying her lower lip, Kagome knew why Inuyasha didn't want her with him, so that he wouldn't have to worry about keeping her safe if something attacked him while he was out there, but it wasn't her own safety she was worried about.

"You be careful," she stated then, earning a curt nod from the inu-hanyou before he turned and headed out the door.

Kagome watched him leave but then quickly diverted her attention back to the child sitting on the cushion before her. He needed to get his answers, and so did she.

"So, Junko-chan, what are you doing in this house all by yourself?"

Junko looked hesitant to answer again, which Shippou was the first to acknowledge as he bounced up onto Kagome's shoulder and said in a playful tone, "Come on, you can tell us."

Startled by the kitsune's move, Junko nevertheless met his eyes before she reluctantly answered, "Painting."

"Ah, yes, we saw your paintings," Miroku stated then, taking note of the frightened look that was suddenly back in the girl's eyes again. "They were very...interesting," he elaborated.

Seeing how the girl obviously feared that she might get in trouble for her paintings, Kagome tried to reassure her, "There's nothing wrong with painting pictures."

"Are you worried the headman might be upset that you've been using his parchment and ink?" Sango asked next, although judging by the state of the house she seriously doubted the headman was even still alive. Whoever this Ichirou person was, he undoubtedly lived elsewhere. She could not believe Junko would come here to play if this were now Ichirou's house; not when she was clearly afraid of him.

In answer to Sango's question, Junko wordlessly shook her head no again.

"Well then what is it?" Shippou asked next. "Why keep your paintings a secret?"

"I'm not supposed to paint," she answered.

"You're not supposed to paint?" Sango repeated questioningly, earning a confirming negative shake of the girl's head. "Who told you that, Ichirou-sama?" the slayer asked next.

Surprisingly, Junko shook her head no yet again, and then answered with, "Masaru-sama."

"Masaru-sama?" Kagome asked, wondering who this new person was. Instead of asking her, though, the future-born miko instead said, "Tell you what. How about you paint us a picture and we won't tell Ichirou-sama or Masaru-sama or anybody else. How does that sound?"

It took a moment, but then a huge grin broke out over Junko's face. "Okay!"

Getting up, she left the stick doll on the floor beside the other toys and headed past the adults out into the hall, heading quickly into the records room. The inu-tachi, sans Inuyasha, all immediately followed after her, filing into the room to watch as she went right to a blank scroll and tore off a piece of paper from the bottom that was approximately the size of the sheets Kagome had provided for Shippou in the past. She then sat down on the floor next to the bottle of ink and picked up the ink brush, getting to work.

ooooooooo

Getting frustrated, Inuyasha was seriously beginning to feel like he was being led on a wild goose chase, as Kagome would call it. As he walked he could still hear the shuffling sounds of children ducking in, around and behind the buildings, as if they were curious about him, or maybe more accurately, as if they wanted him to be curious about _them_ , but his nose was still useless while outdoors and the kids were damn good at hiding because never once did he spot even the briefest of movement out of the corner of his eye. Believing his companions were safe for the time being as he too had been able to feel the innocence of that Junko girl, not to mention there hadn't been the slightest hint of blood scent on her, he continued onward in his exploration of the deceptively 'abandoned' village. Poking his head into the various homes he came upon always revealed more of the same. Complete disarray, and more often than not, stacks of cut, dried hemp stalks, which meant he still couldn't smell shit, even indoors.

Coming upon the village's small local shrine he was surprised by the lack of spiritual energy he could feel from the supposedly holy structure. Spiritual energy had to be of an at least moderately significant strength before it posed him any actual threat, and indeed he could step foot on holy ground such as Kaede's shrine or Kagome's family shrine in the future with little more than an awareness that tickled against the back of his mind, but he could feel it nonetheless. From this shrine he felt absolutely nothing, as if the village's local kami had either never been housed their to begin with or had since abandoned it. He momentarily contemplated going inside, and indeed began heading in that direction, but then a quick flash of something from the left caught his attention and he headed that way instead.

He didn't notice as the main door to the shrine slid open a few inches, a young set of eyes watching in contempt as he headed down the road.

Coming upon the stables after a few more minutes, where the farmers' horses and oxen had once been housed, the place was completely overrun by hemp crops. Getting down on all fours again to sniff the soil, there wasn't even the fainted hint of manure, telling him there hadn't been any farm animals living here in quite some time.

Suddenly realizing he was being followed, one single boy trying to stealthily close the gap between them, he quickly decided to pretend he hadn't noticed, continuing to 'investigate' although his solitary focus was now on the boy following after him. Without a working nose he had no way of scenting the boy's intentions, and whether or not he carried the scent of blood on him, but operating under the assumption that he was going to be attacked Inuyasha kept his remaining senses on full alert. He momentarily contemplated heading back to the headman's house, but knew he couldn't risk leading the boy there if the other village kids were as of yet unaware that that was where the rest of his party was hiding. Of course, if the other kids were _not_ unaware of that fact…

Shaking off his momentary concern, he trusted Miroku and Sango to keep Kagome safe.

ooooooooo

Watching as Junko got to work on her latest painting, Sango and Miroku were not allowing themselves to become distracted, keeping their senses on full alert even as they humored the child. Even Kagome was maintaining her awareness of their surroundings, knowing a threat could appear at any moment, even theoretically from the girl's painting, itself, as the future-born miko again recalled that painter with the cursed ink. She shuddered mildly at the memory, but seriously doubted such a phenomenon was going to be repeated since it had been the power of a jewel shard that had brought those other paintings to life. While she knew such a thing could theoretically be done without a shard if the artist's own magic was strong enough, she sensed no darkness in either Junko or her artwork. Although the art itself did appear a little on the dark side.

"What are you drawing?" she asked the girl, the painting in question appearing to be a group of three adults surrounded by children with weapons raised, everyone standing in a clearing in the middle of the hemp field.

"It's a picture of you guys," she said in a sweet voice, as if she were completely unaware of the artwork's creepiness.

Suddenly, Shippou – who had just been about to comment on Junko's statement – jerked his head up the same time Kirara also turned and looked out the doorway, a quiet feline growl rumbling in her kitten-sized throat.

"What is it?" Sango asked the two youkai.

"I hear people coming in!" Shippou said the same time Kirara jumped out of the room and burst into her battle form in the hallway.

Everyone else moved to rush out after her but just as quickly as the nekomata had transformed her transformation was reversed again as the corridor filled with a noxious purple smoke. Kirara and Shippou were instantly down for the count, and Kagome and Miroku each held a sleeve to their noses as Sango donned her gas mask and got the sleeping youkai to safety so that they weren't underfoot. When the smoke cleared enough to see, everyone saw a large group of older boys all armed with various farming blades, like scythes and axes. The interior of a house was no place to throw Hiraikotsu so Sango drew her sword; she would not kill any of these boys but neither would she allow them to get any hits in. Miroku's thoughts ran along similar lines as he put himself between the boys and Kagome, both hands gripping his shakujo tightly. He could feel a dark aura surrounding these kids and mentally went through a list of his various ofuda, wondering if he had something that might work against whatever had tainted them.

Kagome felt more unsure of what to do, since her only weapon was her arrows and there was just no way she could fire at a child, no matter the circumstances. Nevertheless, she held her bow out protectively, prepared to swing it like a staff if need be. She could also feel the dark energy enveloping these older children, a presence that was still absent in Junko. Looking over her shoulder at the little girl still in the records room, her heart went out to the obviously frightened child. These older kids, they absolutely terrified her; she was not one of them, and didn't even appear to have been aware of this blitz attack.

Turning back, Kagome faced the older boys, her resolve hardening as she stepped to the side enough so that she wasn't being hidden by Miroku, much to the monk's displeasure.

"Who are you?" she asked the children with conviction. "What do you want?"

The oldest boy adopted a twisted grin and answered with, "We want to give you peace."

All of the boys rushed forward then, causing the human members of the inu-tachi to defend themselves to the best of their ability while also holding back for fear of accidentally harming one of the children. What made that especially difficult was that these kids were not showing equal restraint. While they were not using deadly force they were certainly attempting to maim and several times a well-timed block by Sango's wakizashi or Miroku's staff saved them from an otherwise debilitating blow. Sango and Miroku were also doing their best to shield Kagome, who was once again behind them. They were just grateful the attacking children were only coming at them from one side.

Trying to fight off multiple attackers without actually hurting any of them was a nearly impossible task, especially since it meant none of your attackers were ever taken out of commission. It was even more difficult to maintain such a delicate balance in close quarters. Ducking and dodging swinging blades, the walls and floor were getting completely chopped up. Miroku made a couple of attempts to reach for an ofuda, in the hopes it would break whatever spell was bewitching these boys, but they never gave him the opportunity. He had to continually dodge or block with his staff and watch himself from every angle. There was no chance to pause for even a moment.

It was inevitable that under such circumstances our trio of fighters would eventually become overwhelmed, especially since the children not only outnumbered them, but were fueled by a mysterious force of darkness that apparently gave them an abundance of energy. It was only the thickness of Sango's youkai hide armor that prevented the non-demonic curved blade that tripped her from cutting into her calf muscle. She hit the floor hard, and would have immediately jumped back up onto her feet but the tip of a scythe at her throat gave her second thoughts. Miroku tried to get to her but ended up stilling his hand when the kid who was holding the blade to her throat met his eyes with a look that almost dared the monk to try and go for it. For one brief moment, everyone was still.

While he and Kagome hesitated, not wanting to risk doing something that might get Sango killed, the slayer herself was not about to be dominated so easily. Quickly deciding that some collateral damage was a necessity, she popped out the hidden blade up her right sleeve and swiped at the lower legs of her attacker, careful to avoid his Achilles tendons. The boy went down with a loud cry of pain but then one of the other children threw another smoke bomb. The smoke was not hazardous to humans, since they were breathing it too, but it created a moment of confusion in which the children finally gained the upper hand. Sango, Miroku and Kagome quickly found themselves bound together by multiple lengths of rope, the kids having ran around them each with an end of rope in their hands like they'd been decorating a May pole, Kagome thought in passing. At least they were still alive, and apparently being taken prisoner. Being taken prisoner was a good thing; it meant there was still time for escape.

Besides, Inuyasha was still out there, and the future-born miko had full confidence that he would save them.

As soon as he realized something was wrong.

ooooooooo

As he continued to chase proverbial ghosts, the only thing Inuyasha found to be wrong was this whole entire kami forsaken village, among other things, but he did not immediately realize that his friends were in danger as he continued to chase shadows while allowing his own 'shadow' to catch up with him. Entering another random house it was more of the same, namely nothing, and he found himself seriously wondering where all of the children were living now since none of the houses outside of the headman's home appeared to have any lingering scent of humans whatsoever. It was as if he, himself, was the first person to step foot in each of these places in months.

That train of thought came to an abrupt halt when, just as abruptly, the young boy who'd been tailing him for the last few minutes called out to him from the doorway of the house he was currently exploring.

"Hey, you! Hanyou!" the boy said, and Inuyasha immediately turned to look the boy's way.

Being this close to him, and presently indoors where his nose was at least working _somewhat,_ he could now scent that the boy didn't seem to have any hostile intentions, but that did not mean he would let his guard down.

"What d'ya want, kid?" he asked, eyeing the youth suspiciously.

"Is your monk friend here to fight the youkai?" the boy asked, he'd almost say hopefully, earning a surprised arch of Inuyasha's eyebrow.

He could understand why the youth might not recognize what Sango was if he were too young to have become aware of the taijiya, and he could definitely understand the boy not realizing Kagome was a miko, nor was a human boy likely to assume a hanyou was any sort of a hero, so that the boy had singled Miroku out as the one and only potential youkai fighter among them he didn't find all that odd. What he did find surprising was the fact that the boy had asked him point blank if they were there to fight the youkai, in and of itself, especially since he'd been leaning towards believing these kids had all been brainwashed by the thing to do its bidding. Junko's paintings would certainly suggest that the children had turned against and attacked all the adults, clearly at the youkai's order. If they were its servants then what was this boy doing acting like he still had his wits about him?

"So what if he is?" he asked just to see what the boy's answer would be.

Crossing his arms, he looked the boy up and down. It was hard to tell with how handicapped his nose was in this place, but this boy kind of smelled related to Junko.

Kind of looked like her, too.

"Then you better go back," the boy answered, which immediately got his attention. "You know they're leading you away on purpose, don't you?" The boy's tone was as if this was obvious. "Ichirou-sama and Masaru-sama know you're here," he stated then, as if automatically assuming Inuyasha knew who these people were. "They know the others are in the old headman's home with my sister."

 _That_ earned Inuyasha's attention, his eyes widening in realization. He'd started to feel like he was being led on a wild goose chase because he was! He was being led away!

 _Shit, Kagome!_

Without saying another word to the young boy Inuyasha bolted past him, taking off like the hounds of hell were after him, or more accurately, like he feared the hounds of hell were after his friends and he was trying to beat them in a race in which they'd had a ten minute head start. He made it back to the headman's home in record time, even for himself, and as soon as he entered the house his abused sense of smell was bombarded with the lingering stench of youkai stink pellets which did not completely camouflaging the additional scent of several children, all boys, and more importantly, human blood.

"Kagome!" he shouted, running through the house. "Kagome!"

Nothing.

"Sango! Miroku! Shippou!"

Finding a spot in the house where fighting had obviously taken place, damage to the floor and walls from multiple swings of various blades, the scent of a young boy's blood permeated the air, but not the blood of any of his friends, for which he was grateful. Peering into the records room, he felt his heart drop at the sight of Shippou and Kirara lying lifeless on the floor. It took him a moment to realize they were still breathing; they were just asleep, no doubt thanks to the stink pellets. That girl, Junko, was sitting in the back corner, crying.

"Junko!" he shouted, causing the girl to flinch though she didn't lift her head from where it was buried in her raised knees. "Junko..." he said again, fighting to soften his voice as he walked slowly into the room and crouched down before her. "Junko, what happened here? Where are the others?"

Still keeping her head down, she lifted her right hand from where it'd been clutching her left, her arms having been wrapped around her knees, and with her right arm now raised she pointed at her newest painting that sat still wet on the floor not too far from the sleeping kitsune and nekomata. Inuyasha was confused and impatient for the first couple seconds but then seeing the subject matter of the painting, understanding dawned. That, plus Junko's pitiful whisper of "Masaru-sama..." sealed it for him. The kids had taken them. They'd taken them to the hemp field.

Inuyasha almost up and bolted right back out of the house again, before remembering little Shippou and Kirara.

"Hey, Shippou..." he murmured, gently nudging the slumbering kitsune. Nothing.

Thinking fast, he made a grab for Junko's bottle of ink and held it under the kit's nose.

Groggily, Shippou began to rouse, crinkling his face in disgust at the smell.

 _Thank the kami…_

He immediately repeated the procedure with Kirara, the nekomata crinkling her furry little nose around the same time Shippou groaned as he started snapping out of it.

"Inu...Inuyasha?" Shippou questioned, until suddenly the memories all came rushing back. "Oh, Inuyasha! We've been-!"

"Shhh, it's all right Shippou. I know, you were attacked. But don't worry, the only blood that got spilled belonged to one of the attackers."

Shippou immediately sagged in relief a little at that reassurance, holding a hand up to his head since the stink pellet had given him a terrible headache.

"The others aren't hurt, but they've been captured, so I gotta go after them. I want you to stay here and protect Junko, all right?"

Shippou glanced at the frightened child for a moment before meeting Inuyasha's eyes with a pleading look in his own. The hanyou's heart went out to the kit. Even with as out of it as Shippou was feeling, a part of him wanted to go with him and help in the search for Kagome and the others. Inuyasha understood all too well Shippou's desire to go look for their friends, but he didn't want to have to be responsible for keeping Shippou safe while maybe having to fight his way through an army of brainwashed kids in order to get to them.

He wasn't even sure how he was going to find them without his sense of smell. Not unless he heard one of them scream, which was admittedly an unpleasant thought and something he was _not_ hoping would come to pass.

"Kirara, are you able to transform yet?" he asked the nekomata then, just in case all his worrying was for naught.

She tried to stand up on shaky legs, barely managing to stand in her kitten form. A small amount of flame appeared around her paws but was then extinguished, and clearly feeling woozy, Kirara plopped back down with an apologetic look in her large red eyes.

"It's all right Kirara, it's not your fault. As soon as you're able, you, Shippou and Junko should get out of here and take to the sky. I'm sure it's not too safe here. In the meantime, Shippou..."

He met the kitsune's eyes with a kind yet stern look in his own.

"I want you to stay here and protect Junko," he repeated, his voice revealing his meant business. It wasn't just that he wanted the kit to stay behind so that he wouldn't have to worry about watching him; he also legitimately wanted him to protect the girl. "Use whatever tricks you've got to keep the three of you safe, all right? I want to be able to know you're safe so that I can concentrate on finding the others. Think you can do that for me?"

He glanced back and forth between Shippou and Kirara at that last part, receiving two separate nods of understanding.

Kirara then made her way over to the frightened girl and rubbed up against her leg, allowing Junko to pet her when the child hesitantly reached out a hand to run it along the nekomata's back.

"All right," Shippou answered aloud. "But if you need us, just shout."

Inuyasha would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so dire, so instead he just nodded and answered with, "You got it."

With that, he was out the door.

ooooooooo

Being marched through the fields, Sango, Miroku and Kagome tried to stay calm and kept their eyes peeled for any possible openings for escape. Kagome had already tried calling out for Inuyasha but she'd been silenced swiftly with the butt end of an ax handle to her temple. She would have defied their captors and continued to holler for Inuyasha anyway, knowing he'd hear her, but Sango and Miroku had both advised her against it for the time being, not wanting to see her get seriously injured. Breaching the treeline, as it were, the crops of hemp standing taller than their heads all around them, they suddenly found themselves standing in the middle of a very small clearing within the field, children of all ages, boys and girls, all standing or sitting all around, watching them expectantly.

Suddenly, the oldest boy from their attackers, the one who'd sarcastically said they wanted to give them _peace_ , asked another boy around the same age, "Does He speak to you, Ichirou-sama?"

 _So that's Ichirou…_ our three friends thought, each keeping the thought to themselves.

"He speaks to me always," Ichirou answered with a bit of an attitude, as if offended by the question. "But today He is displeased," he continued then. "He is displeased with _you_ , Masaru."

 _So that's Masaru…_ the others thought again, taking note of this squabble between the ranks. It might come in handy.

"What have I done?" Masaru asked, sounding genuinely surprised and upset.

Ichirou had started to walk away, but paused and turned back to face Masaru again.

"Question Him not in vein," he stated with authority. "Did you not needlessly spill the blood of Kaito when he was not yet of age?"

"Kaito was a deserter!" Masaru argued in self-defense. "He had turned his back on our faith and was trying to escape."

"And you should have let him leave," Ichirou stated. "It is His job to seek retribution from deserters, Masaru, not yours. Your actions denied Him His right to reclaim Kaito as a lost soul and welcome him into His home."

Glancing at our trio of prisoners briefly, Masaru then spoke back up, arguing, "Maybe He is displeased that we have not yet offered Him Junko and Haruki. They are also unbelievers, and yet you ignore their sacrilege."

"Junko has the gift of _sight_ ," Ichirou reminded his subordinate harshly, earning our friends' complete attention. "Her paintings foretell of things to come, and it was from them that I learned of the interlopers' pending arrival."

Knowing Junko did indeed have the gift of sight, but also knowing she was truly too young to understand her talent, Miroku, Sango and Kagome did not blame her for unintentionally warning Ichirou of their arrival. She was hardly at fault for merely drawing what she had seen in her mind. It sounded to them like Ichirou was taking full advantage of Junko's prophetic artwork, and yet they knew the girl was under the impression she wasn't even supposed to paint, per Masaru she'd said; she was even afraid of getting in trouble for doing it. It was clear to them that she had no idea Ichirou was using her as an oracle. Even if she did know that he looked at her paintings she was too young to truly grasp the full ramifications.

They were pulled from their musings when Masaru spoke again.

"Even if you wish to keep her around, there is no reason for Haruki to-"

"Do you really think Junko would continue to spend her days playing and painting in that old fool's home if we sacrificed her brother? _Think_ Masaru," Ichirou stated with authority. "As you yourself have stated, Kaito was killed for trying to escape, not that he would have been successful, but the one good aspect that has come from your foolishness is that it reinforced the young ones' fear of attempting escape, themselves."

Having no idea who Kaito was, Kagome's heart nevertheless went out to the poor boy. Someone else who had clearly not been corrupted by the darkness she could feel completely enveloping these other children. He must have been a reiki user, like Junko and, apparently, Junko's brother Haruki.

Ichirou continued his tirade, as if completely unaware their captors were hanging on his every word.

"Junko defers to her older brother, and Haruki wishes above all else to keep his sister safe, which she _is,_ so long as she resides in our village and does not attempt to pass through the rows. They would never attempt escape on their own, together, but should we sacrifice Haruki to Him then Junko may well think her only chance _is_ escape."

Masaru looked displeased, perhaps even disbelieving, but he didn't say anything else. Ichirou seemed to read it in his eyes all the same, though.

"Question not my judgment, Masaru," he commanded him. " _I_ am the giver of His word."

 _It's like some kind of sick cult_ , Kagome thought, sensing a strong amount of demonic energy from Ichirou, specifically. Much stronger than the darkness that surrounded the other children, including Masaru. If this Ichirou boy wasn't a youkai himself then he was being possessed by one. The others, they probably weren't being possessed, per se, but they were being influenced, their dark emotions amplified by whatever negativity had gotten a hold of them.

"Go now and ensure that the hanyou and youkai do not interfere. We will offer the humans tonight when Akio leaves us," Ichirou commanded, Masaru reluctantly leaving to do his leader's bidding.

Watching him go, several other children armed with various farm tools came up to them and appeared to stand guard, making sure our trio of friends didn't try anything funny. Being ordered to sit down, they complied, Sango, Miroku and Kagome all sitting with their backs to one another, forming a triangle of sorts. They actually found the position reassuring because it meant nothing could sneak up on any of them. Just as they were encircled by children keeping a watch on them, so too were they keeping an eye on the children. Sango and Miroku had each been in predicaments like this one before, and were deliberately biding their time, because their desire to not harm these children was just as strong as before. Kagome gained confidence from their displays, plus the fact that she could sense the darkness that was clouding their minds, knowing they were innocent in this.

Thinking of the truly innocent children still living in this village, Kagome hoped that nothing bad had happened to Junko or her brother. She also realized it was a really good thing Junko's drawings predicted the future, because with their reiki undoubtedly making them immune to the effects of whatever was happening here her paintings were the only thing keeping them safe. Kagome also found herself wondering where the girl's brother _was_ , if he were supposedly so protective of his little sister, although she remembered that Junko _had_ initially shaken her head 'no' when they'd asked her if she was alone in the headman's house. Maybe the boy had just stepped out for a minute, or maybe he had actually been there somewhere but Inuyasha just hadn't noticed thanks to his handicapped sense of smell.

Whatever the case, our three friends had all realized that it appeared as if their captors were unaware of the fact that two of them were reiki users, themselves, the third being a highly trained taijiya. If they were to be 'sacrificed' to the youkai they could all now sense resided somewhere within this hemp field, the kids were in for a surprise. While Kagome no longer had her bow and arrows, nor Miroku his staff or Sango her sword, hidden blade or Hiraikotsu, that was the extent of their disarmament. The children had not stripped Miroku of his many ofuda, nor had they taken any of Sango's various capsules and vials of poisons and powders. Kagome even still had her bottle of jewel shards around her neck, although that was less a weapon and more something that needed to be protected from the youkai at all costs. Even so, they were far from helpless. True, the situation wasn't ideal, but after everything they'd faced so far in their fight against Naraku they were not afraid of some simple plant youkai masquerading as a higher towards the west and the rapidly setting sun, they were also grateful for the waxing gibbous moon that was already high overhead in the clear, cloudless sky, meaning they'd have enough light to see by once it got dark and it was time for them to be 'sacrificed' – aka, kick some youkai butt.

ooooooooo

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted at the top of his lungs as he reached the edge of the field, unable to catch a single trace of any of his friends' scents from that point onward. He'd tried leaping as high as he could into the air, even leaping up onto the nearest house's roof and then leaping farther up from there, hoping to get a glimpse of them, but no matter how high he got he could still see nothing but endless field of densely packed hemp crops with the forest beyond in the far distance.

There were a few spots in the field that appeared to be breaks in the stalk height, which he knew could be the result of very small clearings, ones so small the tops of the bordering plants on the near side were from his perspective covering the bottom half of the stalks of the bordering plants on the far side, creating an uneven layer of plants with no visible dirt, no visible clearing, but there were several such patches scattered throughout which meant that if they _were_ clearings, and his friends were being held within one of them, he'd have to search them all one at a time. To make matters worse, their locations were only visible from high in the air from a rooftop jump, meaning he'd have to pick one, run out towards where he hoped it was located once he was at risk of getting disoriented, and then if he didn't find anybody he'd have to first run back to the village to do another roof jump before he could relocate the second potential clearing, and so on and so forth.

 _Not_ an ideal plan, by a long shot.

"Kagome!"

Although so far, shouting Kagome's name didn't seem to be working too well, either.

Or was it?

Suddenly, before his very eyes, the hemp crops he was standing in front of bowed and bent down and out of the way, parting for him, creating a path he could follow. Narrowing his eyes at the plants suspiciously, he nevertheless took the invitation for what it was, and drawing Tetsusaiga, he headed into the field, where his nose immediately became even more useless than it'd previously been. Basically blind, he refused to show his discomfiture, even as the crops straightened up behind him, symbolically closing off his path of escape as they led him farther into the center of the field.

Or at least he'd thought he was heading towards the center of the field.

After apparently making him walk in a wide arc the crops parted again and dumped him right next to the village shrine.

"All right you bastard, whoever you are, you picked the wrong fucking group of people to mess with," he threatened as he turned to face the crops behind him until a sudden wind shift brought the strong scent of human blood to his nose, coming from within the shrine.

 _That_ got his attention, and he immediately darted inside the building, only to realize he was interrupting a twisted ceremony of sorts. The alter that had once been used to symbolically house the village's local kami was taken over by hemp stalks, and kneeling before a girl dressed in oversized miko robes was a young teenage boy barely entering adulthood by their time period's standards with his bared chest cut and bleeding, the girl having been about to drink from a cup containing his spilt blood.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Inuyasha blurted, appalled by the sight.

"Silence, hanyou!" the wanna-be miko chided angrily. "Your presence does profane this holy place."

"What holy place?" he asked sarcastically. "I don't sense no spiritual powers here, and besides, any _true_ miko would know that blood, even human blood, is considered filthy and touching it makes you impure until you are cleansed."

He hadn't spent so much time hanging around Kikyou without learning the basics.

"They sure as hell wouldn't perform any kind of ceremony like _this_ bullshit."

"You are an outsider!" the girl accused, before telling the other children present not to listen to his words because he was a stranger and nonbeliever who did not understand their faith. "This does not concern you," she told him sternly.

"You know, you're right," he agreed then, seeming to relax his posture as he rested the transformed Tetsusaiga on his shoulder, although in truth he had not lowered his guard. There were several children crammed into the small shrine that looked like they wanted to make a grab for him but were wisely wary of his sword. "You little shits can cut each other up all you want, but tell me where my friends have been taken."

The girl smiled knowingly, but then actually decided to answer him, with a sense of smugness born from a belief that he was powerless to stop them.

"They are adults, and as such are to be sacrificed to He Who Walks Behind The Rows."

Inuyasha snorted, nodding his head towards the alter and what looked to be their own human sacrifice.

"Is that why you're cuttin' him all up? 'Cause he's gotten too grown up, too?"

"Exactly," the young man in question, Akio, answered with pride. "Today is my birthday, so this is my passage ceremony."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at that. "So when everyone gets too old they get killed off?" he asked sarcastically, snorting again.

"Not killed," Akio corrected. "We go to Him."

"Who the hell is 'He'?" the hanyou asked, although he had a pretty good idea who 'He' was.

"He Who Walks Behind The Rows," Akio answered as if it were obvious, as if everyone in the world should know who He was.

 _That's what I thought he was going to say,_ Inuyasha thought uneasily.

These kids were starting to give him the creeps, but so long as he could save his friends, and kill whatever this fucking youkai was, then these brats could do whatever the hell they wanted.

Seeing her opportunity, or so she thought, the stand-in miko grabbed her knife and tried to stab Inuyasha in the chest. He saw her preparing to make the move, of course, even though he pretended not to, knowing the mortal blade would not penetrate his fire-rat robe since this girl had no holy powers. It was as if the girl had tried to stab her dagger into a solid slab of steel, and in her shock Inuyasha grabbed her wrist with his free hand and twisted until she dropped the knife.

"Nice try, bitch," he sneered. "Now tell me _where_ my friends are," he emphasized.

Defiantly, she schooled her features to again look smug and answered, "They're in the field."

He'd already known _that_ much.

"Damn it, bitch!" he snapped.

In reaction to his growing temper she shouted for one of the younger boys to go and fetch Ichirou, before quickly changing her mind and saying to instead get Masaru, which earned a reaction from the other children in the room that had Inuyasha thinking he was supposed to be afraid, except of course he couldn't care less. Oh, he was afraid, but only that these twisted little monsters were going to hurt Kagome and the others before he could find them. He was actually looking forward to meeting this Masaru asshole, since Junko had mentioned his name in conjunction with her painting of the children holding his friends hostage. He would beat their location out of Masaru if he had to.

Suddenly, though, he recognized the boy who'd warned him before that Ichirou and Masaru had been aware of the others in the headman's home. The boy who both looked and smelled like Junko and was most likely her brother. He was standing at the far end of the room, nearest the door, apparently having just entered. As their eyes met, the boy gave a minute jerk of his head that Inuyasha caught and understood to mean the boy wanted him to come with him. Discreetly, he nodded back.

"Feh, never mind," he said to the girl then, roughly letting go of her wrist. He even reversed Tetsusaiga's transformation and sheathed it. "I'll go find them on my own."

He tried to move to exit the shrine but suddenly a bunch of kids got up from where they'd been sitting around on the floor and tried to block his path.

"Outta my way, kids. I don't want to have to hurt ya."

He tried to push his way through them, then, but the miko shouted, "Stop him! Don't let him escape!"

First his presence was desecrating their shrine and now they wanted to hold him prisoner there?

 _I don't fucking think so…_

Bolting for the door, some of the children nearest to him reached out and grabbed at his billowing robes as he passed, but seeing as he was strong enough to lift a bolder as wide as he was tall straight up over his head the multiple children clinging to him didn't faze him in the slightest. Even when one of the little bastards stabbed a short knife into the top of his unprotected foot he easily ignored the sting, able to take _much_ worse. Bursting outside, he dropped into a tuck and roll that forced the kids to dislodge from him without any of them getting too seriously hurt. He didn't give a rat's ass about skinned knees or scraped elbows.

Spotting the boy who'd originally gotten his attention, the one who seemed to have his senses about him, Inuyasha ran for the kid, and showing he was neither stupid nor afraid Haruki merely lifted his arms in preparation as Inuyasha made it apparent he was reaching out to grab him as he ran by. He did just that, scooping the young boy up as he zipped past, not even slowing down. It only took a moment of finagling but Inuyasha got the youth to move himself onto his back, riding him like a smaller version of Kagome, the hanyou never slowing his departure during the maneuver.

"We gotta get Junko-chan, then find somewhere to hide!" Haruki said over the roar of the wind zipping by them as he held on tightly. "But not in the field! The youkai sees and hears all in the field!"

"Got it!" Inuyasha said as he put on an extra burst of speed and, after making it looklike they were going to hide out in the old stables, doubled back and stealthily got them inside the old headman's home instead.

Hopefully it would buy them a few extra minutes if the gang of children following after them didn't logically realize they'd be going for Junko and instead went to look for them in the stables first. The one good thing about a crazed self-righteous mob was that they seldom thought things through logically.

Setting down his charge just within the entryway, Inuyasha did a quick scan of their surroundings to make sure they were truly alone. With his nose next to useless he relied on his hearing, which he strained to the max while gesturing to the boy to be a quiet as possible. Haruki understood and didn't make a sound as he watched the ears on Inuyasha's head turn every which way. Finally nodding in satisfaction, Inuyasha walked past Junko's older brother and gestured with a nod of his head for the boy to follow him as he headed down the hall into the records room, where he knew Junko, Shippou and Kirara were still located because he'd heard the girl and kitsune's muffled conversation.

Junko was looking at the doorway expectantly when Inuyasha entered, Shippou having heard his entry and told the girl he was back. She was surprised, however, at the sight of the little boy standing beside the hanyou.

"Aniki!" she cried in relief, having feared the worst despite having received no specific premonitions about her sibling since he was late, having been due back much earlier.

Inuyasha allowed the children to embrace one another for a brief moment but then cleared his throat loudly, getting the attention of both children. He was ready for some answers.

"Okay kid, spill," he said, meeting Haruki's eyes.

Haruki explained everything, then, Junko chiming in from time to time although she let her older brother do most of the talking. He explained how everything had been fine in their little village until the day Ichirou had shown up, a little over three months ago. Seeming to be an orphaned boy their village had opened their hearts and homes to him, but it'd quickly turned out to be a trick. Secretly, at first, he had begun preaching to the other children about a kami of the land that was angry with their parents for mistreating the earth. Naturally, more than one child had told their parents about it, so Ichirou's secret meetings with the other kids hadn't remained a secret for very long.

At first, the adults had thought that Ichirou was fox possessed, an explanation Shippou took issue with which earned a giggle from Junko before grinning a little himself, Haruki continued his story. He told them how, one night, Ichirou had said that he could prove the kami who spoke to him was real, because the kami had decided to show Himself to them, but only to the children. He was not angry with the children after all, as they were innocents, but seeing as He was angry with the adults He would not show himself were any of the adults present as they were nonbelievers. Admittedly curious, Haruki and Junko had sneaked out just like all of the other children had done, but when He Who Walks Behind The Rows had shown himself Haruki and Junko had, for some reason, been the only two to immediately recognize the 'kami' for what it really was. Even Kaito, who'd eventually listened to reason and snapped out of it, had initially been blinded by the glamour.

"He's a youkai, no doubt about it," Haruki stated matter-of-factly.

He then went on to explain how none of the other children would listen to him when he tried to warn them about who and what 'He' really was. It was as if they'd all instantly been brainwashed somehow, worshiping this youkai as if he were not even just some local land kami, but one of the Creator Kami; as if he were a Kami above all other Kami, which in Haruki's mind was just silly.

Literally overnight Ichirou's message had changed from a benevolent land kami being angry with the adults who'd been mistreating his land to a malevolent kami that required blood sacrifices or He would smite them all. The children became the chosen ones, His beloved followers, and it became their duty to rid their village of the nonbelievers. After the great purge, as it was called, their 'faith' had even shifted again so that once a child was deemed to have reached adulthood he or she too was sacrificed, except they didn't even think of it as a sacrifice anymore, or even being killed. Only one of them had actually 'celebrated' his 'passage' so far, as they were calling it, another such sacrifice set to take place that very night, but each and every one of Ichirou's followers were prepared to go through with their own rite of passage when it was their time. They honestly thought they were going to join the kami, that He was going to just take them away to live with Him in His realm. How they could think such a thing after _knowing_ what they had done... It just didn't make any sense to Haruki.

"It's the youkai. He's got them all under a spell," Inuyasha explained. "It doesn't make sense to you because it don't, but they just can't see that."

"Our mother could see it," Junko said sadly. Patting her head, Haruki continued to explain.

Their mother, who had been the local miko, had felt the evil that was growing in their land but she'd underestimated its power. Junko had even started drawing images of monsters and overgrown hemp fields with charcoal on the wooden floorboards of their home, almost as if under a trance, and their mother had not scolded the girl for it, instead taking the imagery to heart, but she'd only upped her prayers, burning incense and meditating in an attempt to reach out to the actual kami. It hadn't really been her fault, since her spiritual powers had been nowhere near as strong as Kagome's or Kikyou's. She had lacked the ability to fire purifying arrows and while she _had_ been able to make wards that would've kept the youkai out of their home, they had not protected her or her husband from the brainwashed human children. She and her husband had been among the first adults to fall, and two of the few whom the youkai had instructed the children to actually kill outright. Although ultimately they had killed all of the adults, every last single one, most had actually only been injured by their hands and then taken into the hemp field where the youkai had eaten them live. He had eaten the bodies of the dead adults, too, but the youkai greatly preferred live sacrifices, as Haruki explained it.

The only adult who'd been allowed to live had been the old hermit, who'd technically not been a part of the village. He, the children and local youkai had enslaved to do their bidding, his job being to keep outsiders away. Since travelers happened down their road fairly infrequently he had been able to live a relatively peaceful life of solitude these last few months, no different from before, the hemp warning him with special signals when travelers were getting close so that he could maintain his usefulness as a deterrent.

"I'm sure since you guys came through anyway the youkai's probably killed him for his failure."

Inuyasha felt mildly guilty about that, but knew he didn't really have time to worry about it.

"What about my friends?" he asked Haruki then, still desperate to find and rescue them.

"Since He Who Walks Behind The Rows greatly prefers live sacrifices I'd say your friends are probably still alive so that they can be sacrificed at nightfall."

"Do you know where in the field these sacrifices are taken?" Inuyasha asked next.

Haruki started to shake his head no, before jumping back and screaming in surprise as Kirara suddenly burst into flame before appearing in her battle form. The look on her face betrayed her exhaustion, but her eyes held a determination all the same.

"You feeling up to it, Kirara?" Shippou asked. He didn't know about the nekomata, but he still felt like hell thanks to those damn stink pellets, nauseous and with a splitting headache.

Kirara's answer was a roar that bespoke of there being no time to waste, as the sun had already slipped past the horizon. She was weak, and would probably not hold up long in a battle, but she could at least fly long enough to find the spot to drop Inuyasha in to the rescue.

"All right then, let's go."

As Kirara walked out of the room and down the hall in her full form, Inuyasha following after her, he stopped for a moment and turned back to look at Shippou and the children.

"You three, come on. I want you up on the roof."

"The roof?" Haruki questioned, face growing a little pale. He was afraid of heights.

Inuyasha nodded. "Even in plain sight you'd probably be a hell of a lot safer up there, 'cause how are any of the other kids gonna get to you, right?"

"I'll go," Junko said, nervously holding hands with Shippou as she and the kit both stood up.

That was all the push Haruki needed and he nodded his compliance as well.

All five of them piled outside to the eerie twilight, not even the slightest breeze in the air. Swiftly, Inuyasha got both human kids as well as Shippou up onto the roof, the kitsune giving his word that he would do his absolute best to keep the siblings safe. Nodding his gratitude, Inuyasha then hopped up onto Kirara's back, the nekomata taking off into the sky and heading towards the hemp field. Now, he'd be able to find them.

ooooooooo

Breathing slowly and calmly as it continued to get darker and darker, Kagome looked up to see how many stars were visible yet as their captors spoke in hushed voices about how happy _He_ was going to be with such a large sacrifice. Especially since it was Akio's night of passage, whatever _that_ meant.

They had that answer soon enough when an older boy, just on the cusp of being a man by their standards, suddenly showed up in the clearing beside them. He was shirtless, with a foreign design literally carved into his chest, blood dripping down his flesh in thin streaks.

"Are you also to be sacrificed?" Miroku asked the youth, just for something to say. The boy smiled down at them knowingly.

"I am going to join Him, but I am not a sacrifice," Akio explained. "I will be leaving this body behind, yes, but only so that I can join with Him."

"Please, think about what you're doing," Kagome spoke up, desperate to try to save this boy. "Have you ever before heard of a god that demanded human sacrifices?"

Sure, Kagome had, in school. Some foreign gods from other cultures. But that was neither here nor there.

"He is not a kami, but a youkai. He has tricked you all, and you mustn't-"

"Silence!" Ichirou commanded, back slapping Kagome hard across the face. "It is time," he said then, and suddenly the large gathering of children wielding various farming tools all started poking and prodding at our trio until they managed to rise to their feet.

Kagome was facing Akio. Sango and Miroku each had to crane their heads in order to see, but they managed to watch as well as Akio voluntarily walked up to the edge of the hemp.

"I'm here Lord!" he cried joyously. "I am ready to join with you!"

"Don't do it!" Kagome shouted, flinching as Ichirou raised his hand to strike her again although he stilled his hand when the hemp bent down and parted for Akio and Kagome's eyes widened in horror as the boy eagerly walked to his death.

They all three felt a massive flare of youki, an unnatural wind rising up from somewhere while the blackness in the direction Akio had traveled took on a deep red glow. The boy didn't scream, but after a moment the wind calmed back down, the red glow dimming before going out. They could only guess at what had actually happened to him.

Ichirou grinned at them with a twisted, wholly demonic look in his eyes. "Your turns," he purred with a sinister edge to his voice.

Without immediately possessing the ability to free herself from the many ropes that bound them, Sango was squirming within her binds, something she'd been doing for a while now, slowly so as to be discreet. Now that it seemed more appropriate to go ahead and openly struggle she upped her game, desperately trying to reach as many of her various pellets and capsules as possible. She'd managed to get a few of them free, which were mostly now in much more easily accessible locations on her person. A couple of them she'd even managed to slip to Kagome, who'd managed to tuck them within one of her skirt's pockets. Sango couldn't get to all of her capsules but it was better than nothing. Whatever came for them, she would not go down without a fight.

"It will be all right, Sango, my dearest..." Miroku assured her then, easily able to feel the taijiya's struggling and using it to his own advantage to relay his message without suspicion. "You needn't fight it. I am prepared to walk into the field."

Both Sango and Kagome immediately knew what that really meant. While Sango had been doing her meticulous wriggling to reach her various hidden potions and the future-born miko had been stretching her senses to feel if Inuyasha was close by, the fifteen-year-old ready to shout out for him regardless of the consequences if she knew he'd hear her, Miroku had spent the last half hour or so of their entrapment silently meditating.

Fortunately, their brainwashed and controlled children captors seemed oblivious to what Miroku's robes should symbolize and did not understand the meaning behind his words, thinking merely that he meant he was ready to accept his fate. Ichirou eyed them suspiciously, and in turn the human members of the inu-tachi suspected that he, at least, had understood, but perhaps he also felt that in a battle of wills he and his 'god' would be victorious, because he nevertheless ordered his followers to usher the 'interlopers' into the hemp.

It took some coordinated walking, but our trio of friends managed to head through the hemp stalks, which all bent and bowed before them, allowing them passage. They also straightened back up behind them, blocking them from view of the children who all wore twisted smiles. The wind rose back up, the blackness of night developing that reddish glow again as if the very atmosphere were charged with a demonic presence, and then they saw it. A truly demonic, crimson red mist or smoke type substance began rising up out of the soil on all sides, trying to envelop them.

ooooooooo

"There!" Inuyasha shouted, Kirara swooping low at his instruction. Knowing the nekomata was in no condition for a fight he told her to just drop him off and then get back to Shippou and the kids.

As he got closer his eyes widened in shock at the same time his frantic heartbeat slowed in relief as he saw what appeared to be some sort of glowing red cloud monster trying and more importantly _failing_ to absorb his friends, a shimmering purplish blue barrier of purifying energy he'd recognize as Miroku's aura anywhere easily deflecting the beast's attacks. The way it moved revealed an intelligence at work. It wasn't just an evil energy he was keeping at bay; the cloud-like youkai was actively attacking them, checking the barrier in various places for a weak spot, of which there were none. Of course, Inuyasha knew Miroku couldn't maintain such a barrier indefinitely, but he also knew that his _friends_ knew that they weren't alone in this, and that he'd be frantically trying to find and rescue them.

 _Hang on for just a minute longer you guys_... he thought as he waited until Kirara was directly overhead before he jumped down with Tetsusaiga drawn, slicing the blade through the demonic mist as he landed less than two feet from the others, the mist momentarily dispersing although it was quick to coalesce.

Kagome had looked up at his approach and descent. She must have felt him coming because he didn't think she would have heard his shout to Kirara over the loud crackling of energy against energy that had been present before he'd sliced through the cloud thing.

"I knew you'd come," she stated calmly as she met Inuyasha's eyes, her faith in him reflected clearly in her stormy blue-gray orbs. Indeed, as she'd looked up at him as he'd jumped down, her eyes had not widened in surprised relief but had merely held a steady confidence, as if she had been waiting for his arrival all along.

He nodded, the look in his eyes promising her that he would always come for her. Always.

"Keh, let's get this bastard."

With one flick of his claws the many wrappings of rope fell away from his friends and in an instant the trio of shard hunting humans sprang away from each other and into action. It was nearly impossible to maneuver in the thickness of the crops but Inuyasha took care of that quickly enough with another few swipes of his claws, making a brand new clearing that gave them room to work. With speed that made the hanyou proud, Miroku reached into his robes and flung out three separate ofuda at the rejoined and approaching cloud being, the first designed to solidify smokey youkai while the other two were both purifying. They had the desired effect, the frozen solid smoke creature disappearing in a swift explosion of sparks, but just as everyone was thinking that that had been way too easy they were proven right as Ichirou came running angrily through the field to burst upon the scene with scythe raised.

They had absolutely zero time to contemplate how or why Ichirou had known they'd just supposedly defeated the youkai.

"Look out!" Kagome shouted, running towards Miroku as Ichirou's blade made to come down on the monk's back.

It all happened so fast. The houshi quickly dropped into a roll at Kagome's warning, while Inuyasha grabbed the miko just as she was about to foolishly throw herself in front of where Miroku had just been standing, hands raised as if she could somehow actually get the deranged boy to stop his madness. Everyone was surprised, Kagome included, when a blast of raw miko energy flew from her hands and knocked Ichirou back several feet just as Inuyasha yanked her to safety.

Ichirou landed hard on his back and didn't immediately move, the scythe knocked free from his hand. Everyone hesitated a moment, as if waiting to see if Ichirou was going to get back up, and then suddenly the red mist thing was back, or perhaps this was a new one, the luminous crimson fog rising up out of the soil all around him just as the first one had done when attempting to envelop the human members of the inu-tachi. Sango approached the boy, then, careful of the rapidly enlarging cloud creature. Staring at his motionless body, she tried to determine whether or not he looked damaged from that blast of reiki, which would give away his demonic status if he did. If not, then he might truly be a real boy merely being used by a youkai, a thought which pulled at her heartstrings and in that case, the taijiya would try anything to rescue the lad.

Unfortunately, the cloud youkai had other ideas, releasing a blast of energy of its own that knocked _her_ back several feet, although she landed much more gracefully than Ichirou had, flipping midair to land on her feet and hands in a crouched position she quickly rose from. The red mist completely blanketed the boy's body, then, before appearing to sink inside of him like water through sand until it disappeared just as quickly as it had come. Eyes snapping open suddenly, Ichirou rose slowly to his feet, an even more sinister look in his eyes than before, a red aura glowing all around him. Holding out his hand towards the scythe the blade vibrated before lifting and flying towards its master. He made a dash for the nearby taijiya, then, but Sango hadn't just been standing there gaping and quickly threw down a diversionary smoke bomb that wouldn't harm Inuyasha as she somersaulted out of the way of the blade that was swung blindly in her direction.

As Ichirou walked through the smoke like a slow, menacing pursuer, Miroku flung another purifying ofuda, aiming for the center of the boy's chest. The way he saw it, if the boy was an innocent host body then the ofuda wouldn't actually harm _him_ , instead merely ridding him of the youkai that had taken over his body. On the other hand, if the boy himself was indeed a youkai in disguise it would be revealed in an instant, and all the better, because then Inuyasha would not need to hold himself back.

Unfortunately, they still did not gain the answer to that very important query when Ichirou raised his free hand and a blast of red energy shot from his palm to reduce the housi's ofuda to ash.

"Inuyasha," Kagome warned then, her tone of voice serious as she met his eyes. "Hold your breath."

His eyes widened in instant understanding and he took in a quick gulp of air, giving her a silent nod that he was prepared. Kagome nodded back before turning and meeting Sango's eyes, the taijiya nodding her understanding and approval as well. The miko then quickly reached into her skirt pocket and threw a stink pellet filled with debilitating youkai poison. It was similar to the stuff the children themselves had used on Kirara and Shippou during their ambush attack, an attack which Ichirou had _not_ been a part of. Nor did he wish to be a part of this attack, as was quite obvious when he waved his scythe back and forth in a way that caused a rush of energy to disperse the noxious smoke before it could reach him, but Sango was on top of it, throwing another pellet bomb right at him from the other side.

As expected, he quickly turned around to dispel that smoke as well and in that brief moment Miroku made his move, running right up to the boy and slapping a sealing ofuda on the back of his right shoulder. With an infuriated shout the boy dropped his weapon and fell over, his body refusing to obey. Obey _whom_ was the real question, though.

"You will pay!" Ichirou promised angrily, still able to speak although his voice sounded deeper and more demonic than before, no longer that of a mere human boy. "You will _all_ pay. _He_ will devour each and every one of you!"

"Feh," Inuyasha spat, rolling the boy over onto his back with a not-so-gentle nudge of his foot. "You shoulda kept seasoned youkai killers off the menu, dipshit."

"Indeed," Miroku concurred as he approached the motionless boy and knelt down beside him.

"Your bodies will be melted slowly until your very souls boil in the pit of Hell for all eternity," Ichirou growled out as a quiet, sinister threat, as the red mist began seeping from his pours.

"Hey, bouzu..." Inuyasha asked the monk casually as he picked up the fallen scythe. "You got another one of those wards for his mouth?"

Miroku quirked his lips in amusement but instead of answering, or sealing the youth's mouth, he removed another purifying ofuda from his robes and placed it in the center of the boy's chest, careful of the red evil that was leaving his body like a rolling fog.

As soon as the ofuda made contact Ichirou screamed, and Kagome had to fight her instinct to turn away. Inuyasha glanced in her direction momentarily but then turned his eyes back to the boy, eyeing him critically. The red mist either voluntarily fled or was forced from his body, quickly filling the clearing either way. Everyone backed up several paces to make sure they were at a safe distance. Ichirou's form was almost lost in the red fog but Inuyasha could still see him, barely. The purifying ofuda was running out of charge, although the sealing one was still holding fast. Slowly, the boy's cries came to a stop, but by that point the cloud of evil energy was so thick that even Inuyasha couldn't be sure if it was because the pain had stopped or because the cloud youkai had absorbed the boy. As it was, the red cloud did not move towards them, staying in place.

Suddenly, Miroku had a new idea.

"Everyone, get behind me," he instructed as he reached for the rosary beads covering his right hand.

"Houshi-sama?" Sango questioned uneasily. She sure hoped he knew what he was doing.

Holding up his hand with a sense of authority, he met Sango's eyes and nodded curtly. Inuyasha placed himself protectively in front of Kagome, both of them as well as Sango safely behind the houshi.

"Do it," the hanyou stated, gripping Tetsusaiga firmly.

Miroku exhaled slowly and then removed the beads and fabric sealing the void in his hand. Carefully, with a control he had acquired the hard way, Miroku sucked up the evil red fog mist youkai thing without sucking up the boy it'd been blanketing, the much lighter in weight cloud clearing out in an instant to reveal it had in fact not harmed the child while it'd been concealing him. In fact, it appeared as if the cloud had somehow managed to remove the sealing ofuda from the boy as Ichirou was standing again, a red glow all his own still shining in his eyes. Quickly, Miroku resealed his Kazaana before the force became strong enough to suck up Ichirou as well, just on the off chance there was still an innocent boy deep down inside there somewhere.

He then took a few steps towards the child, intent on seeing whether or not the purifying ofuda had caused him any harm since it was too dark to tell from his current location, but he was caught off guard when Ichirou's face suddenly distorted into a wide, demonic grin filled with pointy teeth before he raised both hands and shot out a blast of red energy towards the monk.

"Houshi-sama!" Sango cried, rushing forward, although the monk was fortunately able to use his hands to produce a brief barrier shield that lasted long enough to protect himself from the blast of shouki.

"I don't think there's a kid in there," Inuyasha stated then, examining the scythe he held in his left hand long enough to determine it was a normal farming tool with no demonic properties of its own before he tossed the blade to land farther behind himself and Kagome. "I don't think there ever was."

"I agree," the future-born-miko stated with finality.

"Took you long enough," Ichirou chimed in, still with that deeper, demonic tone of voice, his grin widening even more, almost splitting his stretching face in half.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him.

"So we wanted to be absolutely sure you weren't using a child host, so what?" she stated in defense. "It's because _we_ don't kill the innocent."

Kagome realized another thing as she spoke to the youkai that was looking less and less human by the minute. The feel of the dark demonic aura in the area had not depleted in the slightest either when Miroku's ofuda had purified that first cloud youkai, or when he'd sucked up the second one in his Kazaana; something she was sure the houshi had noticed as well. Kagome had briefly thought that they were actually dealing with multiple youkai, perhaps a partnership of sorts, if the cloud monster(s) was/were a sort of energy being and then Ichirou was a more tangible beast in cahoots with the red energy, but she now knew that they were only dealing with one single youkai. Ichirou _was_ 'He Who Walks Behind The Rows', and that mist stuff had just been a separate extension of himself; an extension he was apparently none the worse for wear for having lost two chunks of it. It was probably no loss at all, actually. It had probably been a type of miasma he could produce from himself at will, but unlike Naraku's black poison gas clouds of instant and total destruction this thing had been purposefully manipulated to appear alive in its own right. It had reacted to them, changing direction, attacking them directly, testing the barrier...but it had all been a ruse. That was why Ichirou had come running and attacked them himself when he had, because if he weren't connected to the cloud then how could he have possibly known that Miroku had managed to purify it?

Well, it had been theoretically possible that the cloud had telepathically called out to him in its death throes, or that he'd merely noticed Inuyasha's arrival and had figured he'd better go check on the situation, but that ship had sailed, as Kagome might say. Inuyasha had reached the same conclusions, and stood confidently in front of the transforming boy with both hands gripping Tetsusaiga firmly.

He had also thought of something else: while Ichirou was clearly not an innocent victim in this the other children _were_ , and he would need to be very careful in regard to how he used his sword while fighting blind so to speak in this field of hemp crops. Oh, he could see, what was directly in front of him, but beyond that there was nothing but row upon row of identical, smelly plants, and his nose was absolutely useless as far as determining what lied beyond the field, even though he had seen exactly what stood not too far away while he'd still been up on Kirara. Trying to remember in which direction the children's clearing lied was out of the question; he'd already gotten himself completely turned around and knew he didn't _dare_ fire off something as destructive as the Kaze no Kizu when he didn't know where the other children were. Even if he did know where that clearing was it would've been a horrible gamble to assume they were all still there. For all he knew, the other village kids were slowly closing in on them from all directions; he needed to fight this thing as if there could possibly be an innocent child hiding anywhere, mere feet away.

As Inuyasha bided his time, waiting to see what would be Ichirou's next move, and Sango got into a stance for hand to hand combat while Miroku closed his hands together in silent prayer, working on strengthening his power so that he'd be ready to form another barrier at a moment's notice, Kagome found herself feeling more helpless than she had since back when Inuyasha had actually used to call her useless. What she wouldn't give for her bow and arrows right about now. Nevertheless, nearly useless in this situation though she might be, she was not actually _helpless,_ or at least she wasn't as helpless as she felt. That blast of reiki from her hands had been proof enough of that. That didn't mean, however, that she was going to go foolishly throwing herself in front of Ichirou again, or whatever his name really was. As the only one among them still fully armed, she would let Inuyasha handle it.

Inuyasha didn't give a damn about what Ichirou's real name might be or what specific type of youkai he was. All he cared about was killing this bastard, and carefully, so as to avoid harming any of the children.

Coming out of his brief meditation, Miroku's thoughts were running along similar lines.

"Forgive me my friend," he jested suddenly, meeting Inuyasha's eyes, "but under the circumstances, I feel it would be best if I steal your glory."

Smirking in understanding, Inuyasha dropped his left hand at his side and rested the transformed Tetsusaiga on his right shoulder, gesturing with his free hand as if he were presenting Miroku with the floor.

"Be my guest."

In the time it took Miroku to nod and unseal his hand Ichirou realized what was about to happen and his twisted evil grin morphed into a fierce snarl accompanied by a vicious roar so loud it had Inuyasha's ears pinning back on his head while Kagome's hands flew up to cover her own ears. Miroku narrowed his eyes but didn't hesitate in unleashing his Kazaana. Ichirou's glowing red eyes widened in alarm at the sight, but just as he began being pulled towards the monk's air rip new stalks of hemp grew up out of the dirt all around him and wrapped around his legs and torso, anchoring him in place.

Frustrated, Miroku sealed his hand, knowing he couldn't keep the void open for too long at a time, and it was a good thing he did because mere seconds after he finished wrapping the beads he found himself unexpectedly pulled backward by multiple plants behind him swiftly bending down to wrap around his legs and waist. His balance was momentarily jostled as the plants tugged him backwards and he instinctively waved both of his hands all about in a frantic attempt to remain standing before he regained his composure and concentrated, immediately creating his barrier which caused all the plants restraining him to disintegrate.

Realizing the monk's Kazaana was out, at least for now, and not knowing how many more ofuda he might still have on supply, Inuyasha supposed the ball was back in his court, as another modern saying from Kagome's time went. Under normal circumstances he'd just blast the baka with a Kaze no Kizu and be done with it, but since that option was also out he suddenly decided to charge in that moment, hoping to catch the brat off guard.

Ichirou, who now looked more like a disfigured half plant half human member of Halloween Town with his distorted face and elongated, branch-like arms with twig-like fingers on each hand, held his ground as Inuyasha attacked. The why became apparent when just as the hanyou swung his sword, intent on chopping Ichirou in half with the physical blade, about a dozen stalks of hemp shot up out of the ground and wrapped themselves all around Inuyasha's body, including his sword arm, stopping his swing mid-air. It wasn't anything he couldn't get himself free from, since demonically controlled plants or not, they were not any stronger or more indestructible than your average hemp crop, but in the time it took him to free himself Ichirou was on the move, making a hasty retreat through the field.

"Sango!" he shouted with a jerk of his head, the taijiya trusting his judgment and immediately obeying, giving chase after Ichirou before Inuyasha finally got himself free and joined up with her.

It might have seemed foolish for them both to go running into the field after the boy, especially knowing how he could control the plants, but it was knowing that he had that power that had given Inuyasha his next idea. Almost immediately, the plants attacked them both, as he'd suspected they would, wrapping around each of them several times over, but as predicted Ichirou didn't continue to run away after that, although Miroku had been prepared to chase after him next if he had, with his barrier protecting him from the crops.

It was a good backup plan but fortunately didn't prove necessary, as instead, all Inuyasha had to do was shout a distasteful "Coward!" after his retreating form, even before he was fully immobilized, and Ichirou stopped before turning to face them both with a smug look of satisfaction on his twisted visage as hanyou and slayer played helpless. It was as if Ichirou's own plan had been to make them chase him into the field, and he now believed that they were the ones who had foolishly fallen into _his_ trap. Slowly, and safely within the protection of his barrier, Miroku and Kagome snuck up on Ichirou from behind while he was distracted, gloating over his 'victory'. Easily able to hear the others' movements, Inuyasha made sure to keep talking so that Ichirou wouldn't.

"Keh, you sure think you're all that for a weak little pipsqueak," he said, looking decidedly unimpressed.

Ichirou fell right into it.

"You're one to talk, hanyou, considering which one of us is now holding the other prisoner."

The plants binding him did an intricate little dance, then, writhing and shifting until they managed to dislodge his hold on Tetsusaiga, ripping the sword from his grasp, which immediately lost its transformation as a result. It got passed off from plant to plant, then, their leaves functioning like hands, until his sword got carried off to somewhere behind him, but Inuyasha let it go without protest. He didn't need his sword to finish this guy off and if Ichirou foolishly felt confident that he was helpless without it then he would wait until the right moment to prove him wrong.

More of that red mist/energy stuff began seeping up out of the dirt, then. Inuyasha had vaguely been wondering when it would make its next appearance. "Am I supposed to be afraid of you?" he asked, sounding bored.

"You should be," Ichirou answered. "For while I cannot absorb beings possessing reiki yours is an aura I will savor devouring." He then shifted his gaze to meet Sango's eyes. "And you, my dear slayer, will make a tasty dessert."

He licked his lips for show, his tongue long and serpent-like. How he managed to avoid cutting it on his multiple rows of pointy shark-like teeth in his elongated, perpetually smiling mouth she had no idea, but realizing quickly enough that Inuyasha was trying to keep him preoccupied since she could sense Miroku and Kagome's approach she immediately decided to play along as well.

"If you cannot absorb reiki users then why did you try to absorb the three of us before?" she asked, easily able to sound genuinely confused because she was. She was also a little nervous about bringing up Miroku and Kagome's existence, assuming he had somehow stupidly forgotten about them, but he seemed genuinely child-like in one very important way: his attention span.

"Oh, I wasn't going to absorb them, I was just going to kill them," Ichirou answered with sinister delight.

Inuyasha snorted.

"Then why not just kill them outright when you had the chance?" he asked sarcastically. "Why not just have the children do it when you had them attack them?"

Not that he wasn't eternally grateful that Ichirou had _not_ in fact just had the children kill his friends outright, but he wanted to make it sound as though he thought Ichirou was a stupid idiot for the oversight. Actually, from an evil bad guy's perspective, it _had_ been a stupid oversight on Ichirou's part.

"Good point," Sango chimed in in agreement, turning her head what little amount the crops binding her in place would allow so that she could meet Inuyasha's eyes with a look that said she, too, thought Ichirou was stupid. "Why _didn't_ you just have them kill us outright?" she asked Ichirou then, turning her head back to once again meet his glowing, crazy eyes.

Eyes that rolled at what _he_ perceived to be a very stupid question.

"Because," Ichirou answered as though it were obvious, meeting and holding Sango's gaze. "Not wanting to harm the children if you can avoid it is one thing, but you cannot tell me you would have actually let my followers kill you. You could tell they were using non-leathal force and held yourselves back accordingly, but when it really boils down to it we all want to live. If you knew they were trying to kill you, you would have fought harder, whether you regretted it later or not, and I wanted to protect my little minions just as much as you did."

Ichirou paused then, as if he were thinking about something, or listening to something, and Inuyasha immediately opened his mouth to say _something_ , but more crops suddenly bent down and wrapped around his mouth, effectively gagging him. It also made his eyes water, having the stink of the flowers that close to his nose, but fortunately the smell was not so strong that he was about to lose consciousness. He could also still break free the instant he wanted to, but so far that red mist was taking its sweet time rising up all around them and hadn't yet coalesced into a single cloud 'creature' in order to attack them. The instant it did he would get himself and Sango out of there, but he wanted to try to give Miroku the time he needed to make his own next move.

"Do you honestly think I'm that stupid?" Ichirou asked suddenly, and Inuyasha just glared at him since he obviously couldn't answer the question.

His smirk grew even wider, if that were possible, his face growing more and more lizard shaped to accommodate the widening smile and elongating rows of pointy teeth. Suddenly, he turned around, his back to the 'helpless' hanyou and slayer. The crops before him parted at his command, instantly revealing the monk and miko, still protected by the monk's barrier, a purifying ofuda in the monk's hand as if he had just been waiting for the right opportunity to throw it.

"You didn't honestly think that would work, did you?" Ichirou taunted as his red mist swirled all around him, creating a dark barrier of his own that would instantly protect him from any such foolish attempts.

He did not fear the monk would unleash his Kazaana so long as the hanyou and slayer were directly behind him, and with the hanyou no longer armed Ichirou was feeling quite victorious. He had not witnessed just how easy Inuyasha's previous escape from his crops hand been since he had already been fleeing through the field, and presumed the hanyou had either somehow used his sword or that the monk had freed him, since he had witnessed Miroku's use of his barrier to dispel his plants. He was completely unaware of the hanyou's almost casual freeing of his hands behind him as he smirked triumphantly at the virtually imprisoned monk and miko, immediately directing his red cloud to envelop the monk's barrier just as it had been doing when the hanyou had first unceremoniously dropped down on them all.

"Tell me, monk," he taunted then. "Just how long can you maintain that barrier without your precious staff to help you focus your energy?"

Miroku narrowed his eyes but did not answer, using the purifying ofuda he already held as a focal point instead since it was indeed easier to maintain a barrier with a focal object, although it was not impossible to create one without such a tool, as he had already demonstrated. With the cloud seemingly swallowing them up, Miroku and Kagome could barely see anything beyond the mist, the world taking on a purplish red haze, but looking past Ichirou Kagome noticed it when Inuyasha got his arms free. She, too, began playing the same game, then, her goal to keep Ichirou focused on _them_ so as to distract him from what was now happening behind him.

"If Miroku-sama should tire then I am waiting to take over," she bluffed, figuring this random small fry had no way of knowing she couldn't produce a barrier like Miroku's. "Together we can take turns and last quite indefinitely, I assure you."

"Pfff..." Ichirou snorted, waving off her false bravado as irrelevant. "You will both tire eventually. I can wait."

With his arms free and Ichirou apparently none the wiser, Inuyasha already had his answer that anything done to the plants wasn't somehow automatically transmitted back to him, since he'd had to snip more than a few with his claws once he'd gotten his fingers into position. Ichirou could apparently control them to do his bidding with his mind but he could not 'feel' them; they were not actually a direct, physical part of himself. Feeling confident in that assessment he slowly and carefully, trying to be as silent as possible, snipped the slayer free, grateful that Sango had been imprisoned within arm's reach beside him.

"We can very easily last well past sunrise," Miroku stated while Inuyasha worked, both he and Kagome trying hard to act as if they did not see what was happening behind their enemy. "I assume you are most powerful at night, or you would surely not have waited for the mere dramatic effect of 'sacrificing' us after nightfall."

Ichirou shifted a little at his words, as if uncomfortable that the monk had figured something out about himself, but his smug grin was quick to intensify, even if it carried an air of false confidence. It was now his turn to exude bravado.

"Hmm, yes, well while it is true that I am even _more_ powerful at night, I am certainly neither weak nor helpless during the day. You will most definitely have to maintain that little barrier of yours after sunrise, or I will still be able to kill you the instant it is lowered, even if the sun is in its zenith."

Meeting Inuyasha's eyes, Sango nodded that she was ready. Wordlessly, he nodded back. He'd wanted to get her freed first since he could burst out if need be, if Ichirou would have noticed what was happening, but getting her free with their enemy still showing them his back Inuyasha then proceeded to silently snip himself free the rest of the way, as well. Once ready, he raised his claws, prepared to strike. Miroku and Kagome were directly in his line of fire, but he felt confident Miroku's barrier would protect them. The monk looked Inuyasha's way then, as if sensing what he was about to do, while Kagome took her turn distracting their enemy once more.

"You truly are a fool," she said slowly and calmly, hoping her acting skills were good enough to pass herself off as a narcissistic, self-righteous miko.

Discreetly, Miroku nodded while looking directly at Inuyasha, even though he couldn't exactly meet the hanyou's eyes through the red haze surrounding his barrier. He prayed the hanyou would understand that he was indeed giving him the go-ahead while Ichirou would merely think he was nodding in agreement to Kagome's assessment.

Also knowing what was being planned behind their enemy's back, Kagome intended to keep Ichirou's attention fully on herself. She tried to channel her inner Kikyou as she pulled out her ace, so to speak, stating with smug satisfaction, "You neglected to have your minions remove my shards of the Shikon no Tama. Whether you were merely too weak to sense their presence or too stupid to realize you could have strengthened yourself with them while weakening us at the same time, your oversight shall be your undoing."

Let him think she meant that she could somehow attack him herself using her shards. Perhaps he'd think that blast of reiki that had come from her hands had been deliberate and not an instinctive reflex she couldn't control. If he had the ability to determine whether or not she was lying he would sense that she was not, since the actual words she had spoken were in fact truthful. Hadhe taken her shards for himself and made himself that much more powerful, especially while the rest of them lacked their weapons, then they probably would've been screwed. Neglecting to take her shards really _had_ been a stupid oversight on his part, and one she was eternally grateful for.

Taking her bait, hook, line and sinker, Ichirou snarled viciously and roared "You bitch!" as he lost his composure, rushing forward and slamming his bark-like fists hard against Miroku's barrier. He only burned himself for his trouble.

Inuyasha, immediately seeing his opportunity, swung his claws _without_ yelling out his customary battle cry. Underhanded? Who cares? His Sankon Tessou flew forward and easily cut into Ichirou's back and the back of his outstretched arms before fizzling out from coming into contact with Miroku's purifying barrier. Ichirou whirled around and, raising his right hand, angriliy shot a blast of red energy straight for Inuyasha, but thinking quickly Inuyasha yanked Tetsusaiga's scabbard from his obi and held it out in front of him in his left hand, its barrier deflecting Ichirou's attack, before he slashed again with his right hand, a second barrage of youki blades sailing right for the plant youkai who was able to block some but not all of them.

He then pointed the scabbard behind himself and called out Tetsusaiga's name, while turning his head and nodding to Sango as she silently slipped further out of sight during Ichirou's moment of distraction.

Timing it right, Miroku had waited until just after Inuyaha's second strike to drop his barrier and immediately throw the ofuda he'd still been holding that entire time, Ichirou arching backwards and screaming in agony as the holy paper made contact, completely missing not only the slayer's departure but the hanyou's summons of his sword as a result.

"Come on!" Miroku said then, grabbing Kagome's arm and running the two of them out of the way.

Ichirou turned to attack them but yelling "Inuyasha!" not in panic but in warning, Kagome threw the second stink pellet she'd still had in her skirt pocket as they fled.

Inuyasha noticed the move in time to hold his breath, and while Ichirou was preoccupied with frantically using his energy to dispell the poison he was hit with a third attack from the hanyou, this one finally severing his already damaged arms. Woody root-vine looking things immediately grew out of his body in their place, and at the same time two dozen hemp plants sprang from the earth to immobilize Inuyasha while he shot his root arts towards him, but fighting as frantically as he was Ichirou had completely forgotten about the taijiya who came in out of nowhere from his perspective to land a debilitating high kick to the back of his head before turning in a quick spin to kick his legs out from under him, saving Inuyasha from getting impaled. More plants sprang up to intrap the slayer this time, but in the time it took Ichirou – or what was left of him – to focus his attack on the slayer, Inuyasha had already freed himself from the plants that had held him, and having also continued to hold his scabbard out towards the field at his back the whole time, Tetsusiaga had by then obediently returned to its sheath.

Approaching Ichirou slowly, menacingly, Inuyasha unsheathed Tetsusaiga, and just as the plant youkai was about to plunge his pointy branch-arm into Sango's chest he was suddenly the one to find his own chest impaled, as Inuyasha had ran Tetsusaiga clean through his back. Lifting, turning and flinging the broken Ichirou in the other direction, a quick and careful swipe of his claws had Sango free once more, while the badly beaten Ichirou landed limply near where Miroku and Kagome now stood. Black ooze poured from his chest, and he gasped and hacked with a rattling cough, but neither miko nor houshi pitied this creature beyond wanting to end his suffering.

Kneeling beside him, Miroku's face was hard as he placed his final purifying ofuda on Ichirou's forehead, and the false boy didn't even have time to scream before he disappeared in an explosion of purified demonic energy. Suddenly, just as quickly, all of the crops around them disappeared next. It didn't take them long to realize that, while perhaps being 'normal' plants as opposed to abnormally indestructible ones, they had been unnaturally summoned and sustained, unable to exist without the youki that gave them substance. The inu-tachi now found themselves standing in a barren field, a large gathering of village children sitting or standing not too far away from them.

For a brief moment Kagome feared the spell might not be fully broken yet when Masaru was quick to approach them, armed with a scythe. Was the damage already done? But then as he neared it was almost as if they could see the fog lifting from his mind, as he suddenly came to a stop and blinked slowly in confusion, before looking down at the blade in his hand and immediately dropping it as if it had burned him.

"What...what happened...?" he asked. "What have I...?"

Suddenly, the younger children all began to cry, and rolling his eyes, Inuyasha wasn't surprised when Kagome immediately rushed forward to try and comfort the youngest ones. The light of approaching flames had the others looking up as Kirara approached with Shippou, Haruki and Junko on her back.

"Inuyasha! You did it!" Shippou exclaimed as he excitedly jump down off Kirara's back to land up on the inu-hanyou's shoulder.

Glancing around at his friends, especially Kagome who paused momentarily in her coddling of the orphans to turn and glance his way with a warm smile on her lips, Inuyasha reached up to ruffle the kitsune's hair before replying seriously with, "It was teamwork. _We_ did it."

"Indeed we did," Miroku answered as he approached little Junko and her older brother, picking the potential future miko up. "Now," he began, addressing his companions. "The question becomes, what do we do with all of them?"

He gestured to the entire field of children.

"Well we can't just leave them here," Sango stated matter-of-factly.

Inuyasha just rolled his eyes again.

ooooooooo

The next few days went smoother than the hanyou had feared.

With everyone knowing they couldn't just up and leave with all of the children in tow without any sort of a plan in mind, Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippou had agreed to stay behind in the village while Miroku and Sango took off on Kirara. That way, they could locate and travel to the next human settlement much quicker. The first place they'd tried had actually turned them down. It wasn't that their hearts didn't go out to the victimized children, who were now completely void of any lingering darkness whatsoever and still were in a fair amount of shock to realize what had happened, but the village had been small, and poor, and simply unable to take in so many additional mouths to feed. The next place the monk and slayer had tried, a much larger town, had said that they would gladly take in the children. It was a good town, where the girls wouldn't be put to work in a teahouse nor would the boys be sold off as slave labor. They would be spread throughout the community, several families having agreed to take in one or two children each. They would be expected to earn their keep, yes, but in truth they would be doing no more work than any other child who'd been born in that town, and once they came of age they would be free to do as they wished.

Sango and Miroku knew they couldn't have asked for a better arrangement.

The only exception was going to be little Junko and her brother Haruki. Everyone had agreed that those two should go back with them to Kaede's village so that they could study under the old miko and learn how to harness their powers of purification.

It was somewhat of a traveling circus, Inuyasha felt, once the lot of them hit the road, and he didn't exactly appreciate having to hunt or fish for so many extra mouths during the short journey, but the grateful looks Kagome kept sending his way made up for it, he supposed. He was just glad they were nowhere near the night of the new moon. Not that he wouldn't have wanted to let any of those brats see him turn human, because he could have easily stayed out of sight, but the idea of not being able to protect them would have been terrifying. He might posture and pretend that he didn't like kids but these rugrats had been innocent victims of a wicked youkai, and that made even Inuyasha's heart go out to them. Sango, especially, couldn't stop comparing them to her brother in her mind, and she was easily able to act as counselor to help some of the older children deal with the trauma of knowing what they had done because it was a speech she'd been practicing for months now. She could only hope that, one day, she'd be able to say all these words to the boy who needed to hear them the most.

Miroku's heart went out to Sango as he saw her trying to deal with her pain while keeping her brave smile firmly in place for the benefit of the children, or perhaps for herself. He never really had seen her cry. A stray tear or two before she'd wipe them away and compose herself. If the time ever came when Sango was the one who needed a shoulder to cry on, as she was being for these children now, he would gladly be the one to be there for her. Maybe one day he'd brave letting her know.

Once they finally dropped the majority of the kids off at that large town and began the long trek back to Kaede's things were much more peaceful. The young miko and monk in the making were pleasant to be around, and when Junko began drawing pictures in the dirt about a dry well that acted as a magical porter to some other fantastical realm and asked them in confusion what it could possibly mean they told her only that it was nothing she needed to worry about. There had been a brief moment of silence as Junko met Kagome's eyes, as if the little girl was seeing other visions, but then she just smiled, said a cheerful "Okay!" and began drawing flowers.

Kagome and Inuyasha exchanged a quick glance before they both went back to watching the girl, each thinking the same thing. It was going to be interesting having her and her brother around.

 _Fin_


End file.
